The drinking water system in Jackson, Mississippi — the state’s largest city with more than 160,000 residents — is in danger, state officials announced on Monday.
The Jackson water system has been facing mounting trouble for years, and it looks like it’s now or never to fix it. Thousands of Jackson residents already have little to no water pressure. While officials ensured they are working to restore it, it’s hard to determine how long that will take. For now, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency and created an “incident command center” to distribute water to the city’s residents.
“Until it 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.”
This isn’t the first time a city has gone without water. Flint, Michigan had decontaminated water for two years, and other cities across the country have faced similar shortages.
The Red Cross is already on the ground providing assistance to residents. Here are a few other organizations help out in Jackson that could use your help:
- Both New Horizon Ministries and Immigrant Alliance For Justice And Equity have both been distributing water around the city.
- The Mississippi Food Network, the state’s only food bank, in collaboration with Feeding America, is providing water bottles to residents in need.
- Shower Power Mississippi is a mobile shower service that works directly with the homeless population to improve quality of life in the state.
- Cooperation Jackson is taking donations for future training and mutual aid efforts that will provide residents of West Jackson with autonomous solutions to infrastructure problems.
- Mississippi M.O.V.E. is a coalition of community-based organizations in Mississippi advocating for marginalized communities through education. Due to the water shutdown, many schools in the area have had to transition to online learning because they cannot provide clean water to students.
- The Poor People’s Campaign is a community-first organization that specifically provides aid to low-income communities.
We will continue to update with resources as more information comes in.
