Photo courtesy of Flickr.
Officials in Jackson, Mississippi have appealed state and federal aid in managing their water crisis.
By Shira Sadeh ’25
Science & Environment Editor
Content warning: This article discusses environmental racism.
On Aug. 29, Jackson, Mississippi Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba released an emergency order declaring a water system emergency in the city. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency the same day, when the majority of the city’s 150,000 residents were left without access to running water, according to a Vox article. The report states that the crisis is a result of damaged infrastructure at the O.B. Curtis treatment plant and water pump issues at the secondary J.H. Fewell treatment facility.
The O.B. Curtis plant first experienced malfunction following high rainfall, which flooded the Pearl River, an Associated Press News article explained. The sudden influx of water slowed the plant’s treatment process, depleted water supply tanks and caused pressure to drop. According to AP News, city officials explained that the plant was already using backup pumps when this occurred, and stated that a rental pump had been installed to fix the pressure issue. Despite the restoration of pressure, many residents were still without access to clean water.
According to Vox, many residents had no access to water, while others observed polluted and discolored water trickling out of their faucets. This prompted the city to issue a water boiling advisory, instructing residents to boil water for one minute before using it.
As outlined in a Time article, issues of infrastructure upkeep have been plaguing Jackson for almost 80 years. Since the 1940s, mayors and city council members have been calling for more funding to repair failing facilities. Since the 1970s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has expressed concerns for the city’s disrepair and urged Jackson to invest more in protecting clean water access.
According to a BBC article on the issue, Jackson has struggled to provide citizens with safe and reliable water in more recent years as well. In the winter of 2020, when freezing temperatures caused a water plant to malfunction, parts of the city were without water for nearly six weeks. Since then, multiple infrastructure failures have caused repeated boiling advisories and extremely low water pressure in many areas of the city.
A Brookings article explained that due to a lack of steady economic growth and recent declines in median wages, municipalities and utility plants have been unable to generate revenue that covers infrastructure upkeep costs. The cost of fully repairing infrastructure not only to solve this crisis, but also to prepare for future flooding, would be approximately $2 billion. Jackson’s situation is similar to past, present and seemingly future cases in many predominantly Black metro areas, such as Flint, Baltimore and Detroit.
Time also described community members’ frustration with state and federal officials, calling them out for only attempting to address the issue now rather than implementing preventative measures before the crisis occurred.Currently, over 82 percent of the city’s population is Black, and almost a quarter live under the poverty line, another fact that many suggest is why Jackson’s infrastructure has been allowed to fall into disrepair. “We’re facing an environmental injustice and we have been ignored. Jacksonians and people around the area have been ignored by state leadership and now they want to swoop in — all hands on deck, fixing the problem — but we’ve been asking for help for years, not even just from this administration,” Maisie Brown, a community organizer, told Time.