Weather

Mississippi Resident Shares Struggles With Water Issues After Storms

Thousands of people still don't have access to clean water after last month's winter storm. The city has not said when it expects it to be resolved.

Mississippi Resident Shares Struggles With Water Issues After Storms
Newsy
SMS

Last month's winter storms are still impacting Mississippi's largest city. Thousands of people in Jackson still don't have access to clean water.

The city of 160,000 people is still under a water boil advisory and the city's public works director said about a fourth of the city doesn't even have running water. City officials are even distributing water for flushing toilets.

One resident, Kehinde Gaynor, shared his experience.

"Imagine waking up thinking, 'It's raining outside. I could probably capture some water to flush my toilets.' Welcome to Jackson, Mississippi. If you look behind me, I have 5 large loads of clothes I gotta go take to the washing machine, a laundry mat. We can't use the water to brush our teeth, we can't use it to wash our face. Maybe wash our hands, with hand sanitizer behind it. We can't use it to clean our dishes that’s been sitting in the dishwasher." Gaynor said. "This is 2021, we’re in the richest country in the world. We shouldn't have to be living in these kinds of conditions."

Workers are still fixing dozens of water main breaks and leaks.

The city has not said when it expects the water issues to be resolved.