Michigan Governor Rick Snyder says he will drink Flint tap water for 30 days

Flint residents said they will only drink the tap water if the Governor does first

Many have called on Mr Snyder to resign AP

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said he will drink Flint tap water for the next 30 days to show that the water - which had been poisoned with lead - is safe for daily consumption.

Mr Snyder accepted a challenge put forth by Flint residents after he encouraged them to start drinking from the tap instead of bottled water. But the Flint residents did not trust taps and would only drink it if the governor tried it himself, according to the Detroit Free Press.

“I completely understand why some Flint residents are hesitant to drink the water and I am hopeful I can alleviate some of the skepticism and mistrust by putting words to action,” Mr Snyder said in a statement.

To compensate for the two years of neglect that lead to the poisonous water, the state of Michigan has been treating the pipes with higher levels of phosphates, the Free Press reports, and the governor believes many Flint residents can go back to drinking from their taps.

“The filters work,” Mr Snyder said at a 15 April press conference. He added that filtration is a “step forward” from bottled water.

Members of Congress have called for Mr Snyder’s resignation, alleging that he knew about the lead-contaminated water for at least a year before the news went public. But during a congressional hearing in March, Mr Snyder laid blame to the folly of government bureaucracy, not his own negligence or complicity.

“I’ve had about enough of your false contrition and your phony apologies,” said Pennsylvania representative Matt Cartwright. “Governor Snyder, plausible deniability only works when it’s plausible, and I’m not buying that you didn’t know about any of this until October 2015. You were not in a medically induced coma for a year.”

Flint’s 100,000 residents were first exposed to the toxic water in April 2014, when an unelected emergency manager switched the city’s water supply to save money.

Approximately 40 per cent of Flint residents are living in poverty, making it one of the poorest cities in the US.