The water crisis is maintained by an economic system that has made water bills and infrastructure exponentially more expensive; all while Black Americans’ trust in the water running through their homes has increasingly faltered. Credit: Adam Mahoney/Capital B
By Adam Mahoney and Aallyah Wright, Inside Climate News, June 8, 2023
Gwendolyn Reed-Davis recalls living without running water during the holiday season last year, merely months after a water crisis left Jackson, Mississippi, residents struggling to bathe, cook, and flush their toilets.
The mother of 12 says the city’s years-long struggle has harmed public health and threatened the development of a whole generation of children.
Since December, Congress has earmarked $600 million to fix the city’s century-old water infrastructure, and the U.S. Department of Justice appointed longtime sanitation manager Ted Henifin as the third-party manager of the city’s water system. However, Reed-Davis says she hasn’t seen any progress made in her south Jackson neighborhood, especially compared to improvements she’s seen made in more affluent neighborhoods.
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