Once in a while - in the building, out in the streets - my water is shut off for a couple of hours. Usually there's some warning, so I can fill some pots and pans up with water I can use to flush the toilet. Sometimes, I'll pick up a couple of gallons of store-bought water to have on hand, just in case. But mostly, for drinking and tooth-brushing, I always have four wine bottles full of Boston tap in my fridge. If I have to miss my daily shower, or skip watering my money plant, so be it.
Mostly, though, I don't expend one iota of psychic energy worrying about whether, when I turn the tap on, I'm going to get good, clean, safe H2O.
But if I lived in Jackson, Mississippi, that wouldn't be the case. Even if something came out of the tap, it might come out too sluggishly to, say, flush a toilet let alone take a shower. Or it might be murky, or outright mucky.
Jackson's water troubles are nothing new.
For years, residents of the majority-Black city have endured everything from service disruptions and recurring boil-water advisories to concerns over contaminants like lead and E. coli bacteria, thanks to failures to upgrade Jackson's aging infrastructure. (Source: NPR)
In the winter of 2021, cold and ice wreaked havoc with the city's system, and many folks were without water in their homes for as long as three weeks. And there's been a boil-water notice in force during the month leading up to the latest situation, a catastrophic flood that overwhelmed the city's water treatment plant.
With the city now under a state of emergency, officials are scrambling to distribute bottled water to tens of thousands of people in a city where roughly 1 in 4 people live in poverty. Amid the fledgling response, officials have sent mixed signals about how long it may take to restore service. City officials have said it could be "days," but Gov. Tate Reeves has said it is unclear exactly how long it will take.
I've read a couple of articles that mentioned that the crisis could extend "indefinitely," as it has in Flint, Michigan, which has still not fully resolved the water crisis that hit that city (not surprisingly, Flint - like Jackson - is majority-Black).
So now, this is where Jackson is at:
"Until [the water system] is fixed, it means we do not have reliable running water at scale," Reeves said. "It means the city cannot produce enough water to fight fires, to reliably flush toilets, and to meet other critical needs."
As the governor, Reeves lives in Jackson, which is the state capital. But, not to worry, a water tanker has been spotted outside the governor's mansion. He'll be able to flush his toilets.
Meanwhile, regular everyday citizens are lining up for free drinking water distribution, often to find out that by the time they've reached the front of the line, the water's all gone. Or they're spending big bucks at the grocery store. I saw one woman interviewed who was shelling out $100 a week on water, and taking her family to the home of friends outside the city to take their showers.
The problem is complex. Poverty. White flight. Shrinking tax base. Racism. Negligence. Poor decisions. Incompetence. Getting screwed by those who were going to swoop in and fix the problem(s).
And the typical politics that play out when the troubles plaguing poor folks aren't worth doing anything about as far as the powers that be are concerned.
The population of Mississippi is 38% Black. But Tate Reeves doesn't need many of those votes to get elected. So he can get away with actions like this:
...in June 2020, Reeves, a Republican, vetoed bipartisan legislation designed to help residents with overdue water bills which, in turn, would have enabled the city to collect sorely needed water revenue.
Wouldn't want those non-deserving poor folks getting away with a little free water.
Those water bills, by the way, were often overdue because the city had gotten into a snafu-ish deal with Siemens (c.f., getting screwed...) that, among its other features, gave Jackson a totally f'd up metering and billing system.
Wherever the fault lies, we have a reasonably good-sized city - population of 163,000 (80% Black) in 2020 - where most of the citizens don't have a reliable source of water. Schools have reverted to covid-style remote learning because the toilets and water fountains don't work.
This is an utter disgrace.
We often hear the question asked 'how can this happen in the richest nation on earth?' Sometimes it's 'greatest nation on earth.'
Richest, sure, but not when it comes to taking care of the least of our brethren. Especially if they're people of color. Greatest nation? Hmmmm. Not as long as we have tens of thousands of folks who don't have access to clean water. That's third world stuff. We should be ashamed. I am.
Definitely not the greatest. Shameful.
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