Jackson water crisis: Poor people speak out Monday

Poor, low-income people in Jackson, MS, on this Moral Monday: Water is a human right 

Poor and low-income people struggling with unclean and unreliable water in the Mississippi capital will join the Poor People’s Campaign on Monday for a national online speak out about the dire situation facing the majority-Black city. 

Bishop William J. Barber II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, co-chairs of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, will join the residents of Jackson for the Moral Monday: Mississippi Voices program. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba also will join the program, which begins at 7:30 p.m. CT/8:30 p.m. ET on Monday, Sept. 12.

The live stream will be available here. 

Roland Martin, host of “Roland Martin Unfiltered,” will partner with the PPC:NCMR for this program. 

The crisis, which is one of many in Jackson over the past few decades because of the city’s infrastructure issues, left about 175,000 residents without safe drinking water. The most recent one began at the end of August when a historic rainfall caused a severe drop in water pressure. 

Many blame environmental racism for the decades of negligence of the water system in the city that’s 82% Black. Forty-eight percent of people, or 1.3 million residents, in Mississippi are poor or low-income. That includes 58% of children (417,000), 52% of women (792,000), 65% of Black people (708,000), 66% of Latinx people (54,000), and 39% of White people (649,000).

Danyelle Holmes, a national organizer for the PPC:NCMR and a Jackson resident who has handed out water everyday since the crisis began, says no community in the country should have to struggle with the type of water crisis facing Jackson. 

“It’s very emotional because it’s almost like people, while they’re grateful, they’re pleading for clean drinking water,” she said. “Water is a human right, and it should be free anyway.”

 As of Wednesday, water pressure had been restored, although a  boil-water notice remained in effect. But the crisis will continue until the Jackson water system is fully restored.