Amid the public health emergency happening in Flint and the soaring prices of clean drinking water, Governor Rick Snyder has activated the Michigan National Guard to help distribute bottled water to citizens.

“As we work to ensure that all Flint residents have access to clean and safe drinking water, we are providing them with the direct assistance they need in order to stretch our resources further,” Snyder said in a news release. “The Michigan National Guard is trained and ready to assist the citizens of Flint.”

Snyder declared a public health emergency in October after children drinking tap water were found to contain elevated levels of lead. Sustained contact with lead can cause learning disabilities in children and poison adults. An audit found that after Flint switched its water system in 2014 to cut costs, damaged pipes leaked lead into the water.

Though citizens have been told not to drink water without purifying it first, the state government has struggled to keep its citizens both hydrated and healthy. On Jan. 5, Snyder declared a full-blown state of emergency and requested aid.

Police and Red Cross volunteers are now lugging crates of bottled water and water testing kits door to door, even in heavy snow and blistering winds. Their goal is to visit 500-600 houses every day in order to make contact with each of Flint’s 99,000 residents.

The National Guard will help alleviate staffing shortages and help police and volunteers reach that goal. State policymakers hope that military intervention will help the disaster recovery process go more quickly and smoothly.

“I trust the good men and women of the National Guard will jumpstart the Snyder administration’s lackluster response to this public health crisis,” Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich said. “Sadly, myself and many leaders of my community have advocated for this type of response for months.”