Specifics Murky in Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s Federal Jackson Water Crisis Relief Bill
The City of Jackson may receive federal assistance for its ongoing water crisis after U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith introduced a three-pronged relief bill on Tuesday.
The City of Jackson may receive federal assistance for its ongoing water crisis after U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith introduced a three-pronged relief bill on Tuesday.
What does it mean to be without water? It is innumerable small humiliations: the splash of a toilet flushed with a bucket, days on end without a shower, no clean clothes. It is weeks without a cooked meal, a sink full of unclean dishes, brushing one’s teeth with water from a bottle, if a bottle can be found. For Tamiko and Otis Smith and many others, it is something far more dangerous.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba and Lt. Gov Delbert Hosemann met today at the Capitol for a “respectful conversation,” in the mayor’s words, to discuss a concrete plan to address Jackson’s short-term water-system needs. The meeting was a preface to the much more complex discussion of how to permanently address the city’s aging water infrastructure.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said Mayor Kane Ditto, the capital city’s last white mayor, was also the last leader on Jackson’s infrastructure. Former Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. begged to differ. “I don’t know what the impetus is behind all of this misinformation,” Johnson said. “I hope it’s not demographics.”
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