As of September 2, the vast majority of the residents of the city of Jackson, Mississippi—over 150,000—still have no access to safe drinking water. The Jackson water crisis began on August 30 when flooding caused the pumps at the main water treatment facility, O.B. Curtis, to fail. This left most residents without clean water and many with no water at all due to low water pressure. Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves warned residents on August 31, “Do not drink the water from the pipes if you can avoid it.”
Water coming out of the pipes in Jackson is discolored and cloudy, if any water comes out at all. On August 31, Jim Craig, senior deputy and director of health protection at the Mississippi Department of Health, told residents to shower with their mouths closed. Apart from being contaminated, the water in Jackson lacks sufficient pressure. Many residents do not have enough water “to fight fires, to reliably flush toilets, and to meet other critical needs,” as Reeves described.
Both President Biden and Governor Reeves declared a state of emergency on August 30, but Jackson has been undergoing periodic water crises for a while. “The water crisis is the
— source peoplesdispatch.org | Natalia Marques | Sep 4, 2022