(Video: Rory Doyle for The Washington Post) Comment on this story Comment JACKSON, Miss. — What stood out this week was the calm. The streets were quiet and residents waited for resources. The entire city of more than 150,000 people was without safe drinking water, with no end in sight. Many residents here say they have long since adapted to catastrophic government failure. “Jackson’s water is messed up. I don’t even feel like they should be billing people,” said Rosonda Snell, 32, who works at a local hotel. “It’s contaminated and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Snell is a recipient of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Program and says she uses most of the money she receives from it to buy water for her family for a while. “I spend about $200 on bottled water every month. That’s mostly what I use that money for, to buy five large cases of water for the month,” said Snell, a Jackson native. “I really want to leave Jackson so bad.” The water system in Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, has been failing for years. In 2021, a severe winter storm knocked the system out for a month. Even when water is flowing from taps, residents struggle with periodic boil advisories and high bills for water that is not always safe to drink. This week, due in part to severe flooding, the treatment plant failed completely, leaving the city’s residents without water to drink, bathe or even flush toilets. ‘No one should have to live like this’: Black residents hope infrastructure bill will fix city’s water woes – if state allows it Gov. Tate Reeves (R) said Jackson’s ongoing water crisis is an “imminent health threat.” Experts say this crisis has been years in the making, the result of insufficient funding for essential infrastructure upgrades. Over the past year, leaders in this majority-Black, Democratic-led city have pushed for additional funding from the white Republicans who run the state. Little has been done of these appeals. On Thursday, state officials announced that 108 tractor-trailers loaded with water were en route to Jackson for all residents. Reeves deployed 600 Mississippi National Guard troops to seven water distribution sites throughout the state capital. The governor said at least one water treatment pump is expected to be repaired early next week, although it is unclear when water will be restored to the entire city. But for many here, it’s too little, too late. “I haven’t had water running properly for at least a year and a half,” said Kwame Braxton, 32, a speculator who lives in West Jackson. Braxton was home, watching his niece and nephew. The Jackson Public School District announced Monday that it will switch to virtual learning until running water is restored. Braxton, who owns a digital fabrication workshop, stepped in to accommodate his young relatives because he can work from home. “It’s hard work, but you do what you have to for the family,” Braxton said. For more than a year, Braxton has had trouble flushing one of his toilets, and the water in the pipes has a brownish tint. During a freeze last year, pipes in front of Braxton’s home burst, flooding his front lawn and more than quadrupling his water bills. He said it took him more than three months to call the city to get technicians to his property to shut off the valve so he could get a plumber to make repairs. “It’s really just government mismanagement and a lack of care about what’s going on in the city community,” Braxton said. “You go to these different communities outside of Jackson and you can see the difference. they will allocate funding to fix their infrastructure there.” For Veronica Jackson, getting the basics is like having a second job. Jackson, who works in foster home licensing for the Mississippi Department of Human Services, has a tight schedule. After working all day, she volunteers for the soccer teams her two boys, ages 6 and 14, play on. “This is unbearable,” Jackson said. “We pay $2 a gallon for water and that’s if you can find it.” But she said she feels lucky. Her youngest son’s private school has remained open and she can leave her 14-year-old at home to attend Zoom classes. He says it’s not ideal, but he has to keep working, in part to afford hundreds of dollars in monthly water bills. “No one is taking responsibility” for the crisis, he said. “You have the governor and the mayor blaming each other. They just keep going back and forth. Both knew the water had to be fixed. This has been happening for years.” Benny Ivey, a plumber and co-director of the group Strong Arms of Jackson, said the city’s water crisis is finally getting the national exposure it deserves. “We have people who actually see what’s going on,” Ivey said. “I’m glad the governor and other people are finally saying something about this and saying they’re going to do something about it. But… we’ll see if they put money where their mouths are.” As a plumber, Ivey is well aware of the city’s crumbling water infrastructure. “There are always water pipes breaking and sewer lines breaking,” he said. “I’ve had cases where I’ve had my guys replace a sewer line from the house to the street and you get to the street and find out the city line is messed up and the city makes the homeowner tear down the street, fix the line on the road and then asphalt road. What kind of place does that make?’ Ivey grew up in South Jackson but moved to a suburb in nearby Rankin County. “No gunfire, good water, good sewer,” Ivey said of Florence, Miss., the city where he lives. “It’s like night and day.” Tammie Williams, who lives down the road from Snell in South Jackson, said she dreams of leaving Jackson. The same heavy rain that flooded the Pearl River and shut down the OB Curtis water plant led to a sewage backup at her home. Raw sewage rose up her pipes and burst into her bathroom. Nearly a week later, despite calls to the city, there is still a pool of raw sewage at the edge of her property. The breeze blows the smell right into her yard. Williams only uses the water for bathing, which officials recommended, but she says she and one of her granddaughters are experiencing what looks like an allergic reaction to the untreated water. “We were a little bit like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. … I had a lump here and her cheeks were really pink,” Williams said. “You can’t wash your hair or anything.” Williams worries about the future of her children and grandchildren. “It’s horrible, it’s horrible, everything is horrible,” he said. “We have to give the next generation a chance. I will make sure my grandchildren have a future.” Jackson’s water crisis has been years in the making, said Sabe Jones, outreach coordinator for Cooperation Jackson. Jones pointed to a deal Jackson struck in 2013 with Siemens, a German multinational corporation, to clean up the city’s billing system. The project failed spectacularly, with the city suing and receiving a nearly $90 million settlement. Jones said in recent years, “I’ve noticed more and more abandoned homes, more and more abandoned buildings, more people leaving, worse road conditions, worse water conditions,” he said. “I’ve seen all of that and I’ve seen how the surrounding towns have grown.” Josephine Hartwell can remember Jackson before White flight decimated the city’s tax base. The 64-year-old grew up in Jackson before moving to Milwaukee with her husband. She returned to Jackson when her mother became ill. “It used to be very nice. When I was a teenager, you came here to have fun,” said Hartwell, who returned to Mississippi in 2015. “But now, this town is crazy.” “There is a lack of water, but that’s not all,” he added. “Everything is torn apart. But I am very happy for this mayor, [Chokwe Antar Lumumba]. He’s trying to pull things together, but it’s just frustrating and tiring.” The water crisis is just one of many facing Jackson, Hartwell said. He says every aspect of the city’s infrastructure needs to be addressed. She often has to take her car in for repairs because of potholes. During the recent floods, she almost lost her car driving to work on a flooded bridge. He also says the city needs to get crime under control. A few months ago he was the victim of a carjacking. “I’m depressed and it’s kind of scary,” she said. “I was working on [University of Mississippi Medical Center]I had to go home in the evening and I gave up because I had to drive myself.” “But I thank God that people are helping us now,” Hartwell said.
