Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves is asking the federal government to step in and help Jackson businesses overcome economic hardships that the capital city’s ongoing water crisis.
“These white folks don’t want us all to own our role and to work together; they want to finger-point at a Black mayor who inherited a billion-dollar-plus water-sewer crisis, fixate only on recent missteps and, thus, abdicate all other responsibility,” MFP Editor and CEO Donna Ladd writes. “That simplistic approach continues the old cycles.”
For the first time in recent memory, virtually all stakeholders in the future of Mississippi’s capital city came together Wednesday to discuss the Jackson water crisis that has left more than 160,000 residents without clean water for over a month.
The State of Mississippi is now in talks with a private company about managing its capital city’s struggling water system, Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba said during a press conference Tuesday. The City of Jackson was also in discussions with the company before the State took over, he added.
“Our team covered the deep causes of the first round of the Jackson water crisis, and are covering this one, like both professional journalists and Mississippians who love their home state and its capital city.”
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced “significant” improvements in the City of Jackson’s water system on Labor Day while telling reporters he is open to numerous long-term solutions, including leasing its management to a private company.
The City of Jackson reported on Thursday, Sept. 1., 2022, that more than half of the surface tanks across the city were filling as efforts are underway to fix problems at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant.
Rhea Williams-Bishop, director of Mississippi and New Orleans programs at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation writes that “together, we can be the ones who create the environments and communities that build up our children, rather than tear them down.” She encourages Mississippians to come together to solve the Jackson water crisis—and then to repair the systems that led to it.
A viral video showing a tanker truck parked across from the Mississippi Governor’s Mansion in Jackson has sparked speculation online that Gov. Tate Reeves’ home is enjoying special access to clean water while most residents of the capital city go without safe running water. But the speculation is wrong.
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