'We want our running water' - Jackson residents suffer in aftermath of water system failures

 

Jackson resident Kevin Dudley is filling several milk jugs with non-potable water at one of the city’s four distribution sites. He’s also taking home a case of drinking water for him and his daughter. Dudley’s frustrated, he’s been without water for 23 days. “It’s nonsense to me. You have over 10,000 citizens of Jackson without water, and families are suffering. Wherever the bureaucracy is between city leaders and state leaders, cut it out. The bigger picture is getting 10,000 people back with water in Byram, Terry, Jackson. We want our running water.”

The city has requested several million dollars from the State to replace some aging infrastructure. But the Mayor estimates a full system overhaul would cost around $2 billion. State Representative Bo Brown represents parts of Jackson and says finding the money in the state's budget could be difficult. “We’re looking at, the state legislature that is, to pitching into some degree non necessarily the full [ammount] needed, but to at least give them a portion of that amount of money to help rectify this very serious problem.”

Representative Brown is helping pass out bottled water in South Jackson. 

In a line of cars, Dorothy Tolar turns and asks a volunteer to place a bundle of water on her back seat. She says she needs that bottled water to cook for her mother. “She have to take a bath, she has to have her coffee, she has to have comfort. As a 78-year-old who has been her all her life, it’s horrible. Because we have to put water in the commode, you have to fill it every time you go to the bathroom.”

Jackson is a city that’s around 80% Black, Tolar believes the problems facing her community are being ignored. “Our wellbeing don’t matter. Well, we’re used to that anyway. We’re used to being second anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”

City officials say there is still no timeline for when the water outages will end.