Housing Inequality in AmericaMain MenuThe Generational Illusion: An EssayAn Essay by Collin AndrewsEnvironmental Racism: How Residential Segregation Shapes Environmental InequalityHistoric Preservation Coast to CoastTitle PageNative American Housing: How Poor Housing Harms Indigenous HealthHow Poor Housing Harms Indigenous HealthPets & Housing: It's "Ruff" by Katie ClineHow NIMBYism Exacerbates Housing InequalityWhere's the Wealth!How Housing Discrimination has led to racial wealth inequality in the United StatesImmigrant Housing Inequality in AmericaIswat JinadSurveillance InequalityAn investigation into how poor communities are oversurveilled creating a cycle of more targeted and aggressive forms of surveillance for them and those around them.Post-WWII Urban Flight and the Birth of the SuburbsHousing Discrimination in Suburban AmericaRace, Repressive State Apparatus, and Homelessness: From Colonialism to COVID-19Tina NandiHousing Inequality and Access to Quality EducationMQ: Title PageVisualizing racial housing discriminationSplash page for path that includes interactive resources regarding racial housing discriminationProject information and creditsAndy Schocket278555063cc66428c8eadf42f48d412091c5aaf9Melissa Laddab8653014603439710b65435181f2130cee53400Andrew Bartelc9a57442f34fea7858b734ce98f4ec79bd5565b0Collin Andrewsf69afa6ae7fb0f33058b9e0cb476f7451a667cefTina Nandi6e38643c2c1510534cce4e954f0eeb8108bce699Iswat Jinad196dd805bf51f7a46fbf2d94ab069e97fc004d75Marcus Harris7e23857364c2363b25872718aea81323bdd37773James Cousinoe9398a1542d344c824ddaaf967819ae589cd2b61Katie Cline512add1943f75cbd770d4788dcdea90b706922c4Trisha A Bonham7fa13b399c9331700d719225b96f3bf9e54c4570Rene Oswald Ayalac01cc7385c24c3926f2f03a40860f6a4f703f410Kristine Ketel826fdfc33a24cff2c1e0ab79396dd2ae2bae3ed9Morgan Quinleyc8a47798c223cced64347bc9a7d80f6a64402e45
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12022-12-06T13:19:37-08:00Rene Oswald Ayalac01cc7385c24c3926f2f03a40860f6a4f703f410412371plain2022-12-06T13:19:37-08:00Rene Oswald Ayalac01cc7385c24c3926f2f03a40860f6a4f703f410Amir Vera, Jason Hanna, and Nouran Salahieh, “The Water Crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, Has Gotten so Bad, the City Temporarily Ran out of Bottled Water to Give to Residents,” CNN, August 30, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/30/us/jackson-water-system-failing-tuesday/index.html.
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12022-12-05T19:43:42-08:00The Jackson, Mississippi Water Crisis (August/September 2022)17plain2022-12-12T08:30:30-08:00The city of Jackson, Mississippi has been amid a water crisis since August 2022 where residents have not had reliable access to clean water. The immediate cause of the crisis was the flooding of the Pearl River in late August which damaged one of the city’s water treatment plants, the O.B. Curtis plant, which resulted in a lack of water pressure and an inability to provide residents with clean water. In the immediate days after the crisis began the city struggled with providing residents with even bottled water as residents sourced store shelves and many stood in lines for hours to only receive one case of water.
The first 40 seconds of the following video includes the viral tweet by Mississippi Today reporter Molly Minta where she recorded contaminated water coming out of her sink. Jackson residents have had to deal with not having reliable access to clean running water for many years now. The city was already under a boil-water notice months before the flooding, residents had previously gone without water for weeks back in the winter of 2021 after a winter storm, and in 2020 the EPA issued a warning to Jackson residents that the water could contain dangerous contaminants, including E. coli. Even then, residents have been warned about elevated lead levels in the water that were first discovered back in 2016. The August flooding, while the case of this particular crisis, exacerbated existing problems in the city’s water system. In fact, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba stated in response to the 2022 flood, “I have said on multiple occasions that it’s not a matter of ‘if’ our system would fail, but a matter of ‘when’ our system would fail.”
The problems with the Jackson water system stem from decades of disinvestment. There have been few infrastructure improvements to the water system since it was originally created in the 1900s which means that many of the pipes are in need of serious repair and are susceptible to corrosion.Since at least the 1940s, Jackson city officials have called for the water system to be improved, but the high cost and number of repairs needed have made fixing the water system a difficult task for generations of city mayors, especially as the issues with the water system have compounded over time. Mayor Lumumba stated that it is estimated the city would need around $2 billion to modernize the water system.