Residents of Jackson, Mississippi entered a fourth day Thursday with little or no water flowing from their faucets. Authorities are scrambling to get the city’s water treatment plant, which has been plagued by decades of deferred maintenance, back online after severe flooding in the area last week caused it to fail.
Let’s take a look at ABC World News’ coverage on the repercussions of the capitol city’s neglect of its basic infrastructural needs:
Decades of long neglect results in Mississippi water crisis | RawStory.TVDecades of long neglect results in Mississippi water crisis | RawStory.TV
Recent flooding overwhelmed Jackson’s water system. But the city has been in crisis for years, to the frustration of many residents. Many in the majority-Black city believe Jackson’s needs have been neglected, with the water system as a glaring example.
An emergency rental pump was installed at Jackson's O.B. Curtis water-treatment plant, as Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves pledged that the state was doing everything in its power to fix the city's water crisis.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency called the installment the "first step of many" and the governor noted that work was happening "at an incredible pace."
The interruptions have caused low and even no water pressure for Jackson's approximately 180,000 residents.
While emergency repairs are underway – including flushing out bad water and mechanical improvements – future interruptions have been deemed "not avoidable at this point."
The crisis in Jackson spotlights the chronic problems plaguing the city’s water plant and whether federal funds through various avenues, including the infrastructure package, have reached the facility.
Managers of both drinking water and sewage systems across the nation are eyeing infrastructure dollars to gird their facilities against flooding and more extreme storms.
As part of the coordinated federal response, EPA Administrator Michael Regan deployed federal staffers to the city to support an emergency assessment of the city’s water treatment plants. The agency also said it expected delivery of critical equipment to help repair the O.B. Curtis Water Plant.
