Vegan actor Jaden Smith is helping residents of Flint gain access to clean water with a new mobile treatment system.
Smith and his eco-friendly water company JUST Water — which he founded alongside his dad, actor Will Smith — has partnered with local church First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church to provide the system.
Named “Water Box,” the mobile treatment system filters out contaminants — such as lead — from Flint resident’s water supply.
“This has been one of the most rewarding and educational experiences for me personally,” Smith said in a statement. “Working together with people in the community experiencing the problems and design(ing) something to help them has been a journey I will never forget. We are planning to deploy more water boxes in Flint and other communities facing similar challenges.”
It isn’t the first time the young entrepreneur has helped out in Flint, which was hit by a water crisis in 2014.
The water supply was changed from Lake Huron and the Detroit River to the Flint River for cost-cutting purposes. However, the Flint River was contaminated with lead, posing a serious health risk. Residents were ordered to only drink bottled or filtered water.
Whilst officials maintain that the water is now safe to drink in the area, many residents are skeptical and still opt for a bottled or filtered option where possible.
Back in March 2018, it was reported that Smith had donated 10,000 bottles of his eco-friendly water to Flint schools.
“This just makes sense for us to do,” JUST CEO Ira Laufer said at the time. “After reading more about [Flint’s] challenges and the mayor objecting to pulling bottled water from the schools, we thought, ‘Let’s help these kids.'”
Smith is passionate about environmental causes, stating in an interview last year that he doesn’t eat meat because of the impact it has on the planet.
His values are reflected in his water company, the packaging is plastic-free and made from renewable resources.
“I feel like the younger generations do care more about the planet than the other generations,” he said last year. “There’s more information coming out on a daily basis about the effect that climate change has on all of us.”
