Mississippi Capital Without Reliable Running Water Indefinitely After Treatment Plant Failure

Jackson, Mississippi will be without clean, reliable drinking water indefinitely, state officials said Monday night, after heavy rain and flooding exacerbated long-standing issues with the city’s water system. 

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said the city’s largest water treatment plant was failing and may have shut down entirely, adding, “Do not drink the water.” As a result, Reeves said, the city could not “produce enough water to fight fires, to reliably flush toilets, and to meet other critical needs.” The state’s health department declared a drinking water emergency on Tuesday — just days after a separate emergency declaration over flooding from Mississippi’s Pearl River. 

Jackson itself is home to roughly 150,000 people, but the Jackson metropolitan area contains about 590,000 people. The news comes amid worldwide water-related troubles, including historic droughts in the western U.S., deadly floods in Pakistan and rising sea levels from melting glacial ice. 

Coverage was widespread and mostly balanced across the spectrum on Tuesday. However, coverage was less common in some politics-focused outlets like Politico (Lean Left bias) and Washington Examiner (Lean Right bias).