By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Washington Post
White flight beginning in the 1970s drove onetime Jackson residents into neighboring areas. The city’s decline since then has prompted better-off Black residents to escape Jackson’s failing infrastructure, not just water but also roads and schools. The more recent departures further eroded the city’s tax base, lessening its ability to afford repairs or apply for federal money as its infrastructure crumbled.
JACKSON, Miss. — Alecia McCarty awakens every morning wondering whether water will flow from her tap, and if it will be drinkable.
Earlier last week, her water was tea-colored before it sputtered and shut off. On Saturday it flowed fast and clear, but McCarty still couldn’t drink it from the tap under city orders.
She and her children, age 10 and 11, have had to brush their teeth with bottled water, then spend time refilling the family supply at two water distributions at nearby churches. They have used a garden hose daily to fill four buckets of water to run the toilet.
McCarty, 35, works as a caregiver to a bedridden elderly woman in the nearby town of Madison, which like most areas surrounding Jackson was unscathed, thanks to its newer water system.
“They don’t have water problems,” she said. “They don’t have any of these problems.”
Related news:
Jackson, Mississippi water crisis: Is it the legacy of environmental racism? (WAPo)
Water crisis in Jackson, Miss., raises concerns about environmental racism (The Hill)
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