Severe water emergency in Jackson, Mississippi, Mayor says 'it may cost billions of dollars to fix'. Read more

Water shortages in Jackson, Mississippi, will cost billions of dollars to overcome, says Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba. At a press conference on Tuesday, Mayor Lumumba stated that the city's multiple issues—staff shortage, rampant equipment failure, and system issues—have resulted in the loss of running water.

Lumumba further argued that the chronic water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, is due to a lack of maintenance over the last few decades, leading to the accumulation of multiple complex problems.

As per the Mayor’s estimates, it would cost a minimum of one billion dollars to get the damaged water distribution up and running. However, he added that it would need billions more to fix water shortage issues in the long term.


The recent torrential rain has further deepened the water crisis in the largest city in Mississippi state. The report also claimed that Jackson doesn’t have enough water for flushing toilets, extinguishing fires, or emergency distribution to its residents. The city’s main water facility started to fail on Monday after a major pump at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant broke down. Until the plant is fixed, the residents will not have reliable running water in the state capital.



Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves was forced to declare a State of Emergency on Tuesday. Subsequently, the National Guard was called in to distribute water to the residents while the service workers fixed the water treatment plant. The White House has confirmed that the Mississippi state government had not requested assistance from the federal government.

However, according to Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the federal government was ready to do whatever it could.

The distribution appeared badly organized, as residents of all ages had to wait in mile-long queues for hours before getting a bottle of water. The 700 water cases for distribution vanished within two hours, leaving scores of people empty-handed. Residents of the city claimed that Mississippi was going to be the next Michigan, a state infamous for its severe water shortages.