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Tatyana Ross
\nEditor-in-Chief<\/p>\n
The State of Mississippi issued a state of emergency on Aug. 30, 2022 in the city of\u00a0Jackson as a result of a failure at the water treatment plant.<\/p>\n
The Mississippi Department of Health made the emergency declaration in a press\u00a0release that read in part:<\/p>\n
Pursuant to the Mississippi Safe Drinking Water Act of 1997 (\u00a741-26-1 et sec.), the\u00a0Mississippi State Department of Health, upon receipt of information that\u00a0emergency circumstances exist for customers of the City of Jackson, Mississippi\u00a0drinking water system to receive safe drinking water and that a public water\u00a0system emergency exists, is imminent or can reasonably be expected to occur\u00a0without the immediate implementation of additional staffing and remediation
\nmeasures hereby declares a public drinking water supply emergency in the City
\nof Jackson, Mississippi.<\/p>\n
Such Declaration is based upon information received by the Mississippi State
\nDepartment of Health (MSDH) as follows:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Insufficient number of certified operators at J.H. Fewell and O.B. Curtis\u00a0Water Treatment Plants<\/li>\n
- Insufficient number of maintenance staff at all water treatment plants and\u00a0to support the distribution system<\/li>\n
- Failure of multiple raw water pumps at O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant<\/li>\n
- Low levels of water in storage tank<\/li>\n
- Low water pressure impacting proper sanitation and education
\nopportunities<\/li>\n - Disinfection levels not consistently optimal developing the potential to\u00a0have the presence of enteric organisms, including but not limited to, E.Coli,\u00a0Cryptosporidium, or Giardia in the drinking water being served to\u00a0customers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
D\u2019Quain Young, Jackson, Miss. native, said he feels that the water crisis has forced the\u00a0community to come together but it has truly shown the cracks in his hometown.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing from Jackson, the surrounding towns seem more well-restored, but not us,\u201d\u00a0Young said. \u201cIf Jackson is going to come back from this we have to go back to the roots\u00a0and fix our pipes and roads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joliyah Daughtry, a senior journalism and media studies major lives in Byram but her\u00a0small town relies on Jackson\u2019s water system, said the water crisis has made small\u00a0things in her life complicated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to find places that have water. Water is sold out at all of the stores and by the\u00a0time the water distribution has started, water is gone,\u201d Daughtry said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to\u00a0maintain but it\u2019s hard because I\u2019m lacking the basics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from the citywide boil water alert, some\u00a0 Jackson residents experienced issues\u00a0with the water pressure. This left several residents, businesses, and schools with little or
\nno running water.<\/p>\nHannah Russell, a political science major from Biloxi, Miss., shared that her struggles\u00a0started when the city of Jackson announced the newest boil water alert. Russell said a\u00a0shower caused her to contract an eye infection.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am lucky to be someone on campus who has family in the surrounding areas of\u00a0Jackson,\u201d Russell said. \u201cSo when the time came, they stepped up and allowed me to\u00a0shower, eat, sleep and took care of me in general when the crisis started.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most schools in Jackson switched to virtual learning to make it more convenient for\u00a0students. On college campuses, some students worried about the sudden changes to\u00a0their everyday schedules.<\/p>\n
Ja\u2019Quawn Taylor, a business administration major from Gulfport, Miss., said the water\u00a0crisis puts a strain on his daily routine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Walter Payton Center being closed has changed what I do for my morning\u00a0workouts. I have to get up extra early to use the portable showers and go off campus\u00a0just to do laundry,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cIt was one afternoon I needed to do dishes and the\u00a0running water was very discolored and not clear. I sometimes had to pour bottled water\u00a0down the toilet just to get it to flush.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor said he has friends who have moved back home until conditions become better\u00a0but he will not let that discourage him from his goal to acquire his degree in the spring.\u00a0\u201cI know it took a mental toll on some people because they might have never been in a\u00a0situation like this before,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cSome people may feel isolated with the lack of\u00a0socialization compared to what we\u2019re used to on a normal day on campus.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/9H8A9769-300x200.jpg\")
(William H. Kelly III\/JSU University Communications)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n According to WLBT, local YMCA locations were allowing students from Millsaps,\u00a0Belhaven, and Jackson State to use showers for free with their student IDs.<\/p>\n
Some Jackson residents are not happy with the way the city handled issues regarding
\nthe water crisis.<\/p>\n\u201cDespite this being an ongoing problem, city officials always react to the situation
\ninstead of being proactive and getting ahead of the problem,\u201d Russell said. \u201cSo that\u00a0people aren\u2019t having to scramble to provide safe water for their families. Safe water\u00a0should be a basic human right, but Jackson 9 (residents) have been denied that for over\u00a0a decade.\u201d<\/p>\nAll of those interviewed for this story expressed that the water crisis could have been\u00a0prevented if Jackson\u2019s operated with an updated water system.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s no reason the state capital should have to go through all of this, regardless of what\u00a0ethnicity is populated here in Jackson,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n
Daughtry suggested a solution to fix the water issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel as though city officials and even our government needs to be replaced. The\u00a0capital city should NOT have to struggle for WATER! No one should,\u201d Daughtry said.\u00a0Daughtry is not alone in her feelings, Russell also said she wants to see a change in\u00a0representatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe change needs to be the people in power, the people who have never made any\u00a0effort to find a solution to this ongoing water problem,\u201d Russell said. \u201cIf they continue to\u00a0be given a position in our state government, I fear they will return to their old ways when\u00a0the national coverage is taken from Jackson.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a press conference held on Labor Day, Gov. Tate Reeves confirmed the restoration\u00a0of Jackson\u2019s water pressure. Reeves is open to several long-term solutions and\u00a0revealed to reporters that solutions may include leasing the Management of Jackson\u2019s\u00a0water system to a private company.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that it is always possible that there will be more severe challenges. This\u00a0water system broke over several years and it would be inaccurate to claim it is totally\u00a0solved in the matter of less than a week,\u201d Reeves said.<\/p>\n
The boil water notice for\u00a0City of Jackson water customers was lifted on Sept. 15,\u00a0according to the\u00a0Mississippi State Department of Health.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tatyana Ross Editor-in-Chief The State of Mississippi issued a state of emergency on Aug. 30, 2022 in the city of\u00a0Jackson as a result of a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_plus_post_options":"{}","editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11099"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11106,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11099\/revisions\/11106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}