The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Jackson’s water crisis comes after years of neglect: ‘We’ve been going it alone’

Inadequate funding for essential infrastructure upgrades and tension between state and city leaders helped fuel the emergency.

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Updated August 30, 2022 at 7:32 p.m. EDT|Published August 30, 2022 at 4:47 a.m. EDT
EPA Administrator Michael Regan speaks with reporters at a water treatment plant in Mississippi last year. (Rogelio V. Solis/AP)
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More than 150,000 residents of Jackson, Miss., remained without access to safe drinking water Tuesday, a day after officials announced that the city’s main treatment plant had failed, creating an emergency that could last “indefinitely.”

State and local leaders scrambled to address the crisis, which will require an unprecedented mobilization effort to provide water for flushing toilets, cooking and bathing. Officials have promised to distribute bottled water across the city, and to identify water reserves for the fire department.