• No water as pipes burst in freezing temperatures.
• Major leakage in the system that we have yet to uncover says city’s mayor.
• City’s major water treatment facility experienced issues.

It is only the most recent issue to affect the city’s troubled water infrastructure, which previously failed during cold temperatures and experienced a days-long outage over the summer.

Following a winter storm, broken pipes in Jackson, Mississippi, left thousands of homes without flowing water as the city tried to restore pressure to its brittle water system.

There are “major leakage in the system that we have yet to uncover,” according to a statement released by Jackson officials on Monday. The city’s mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, attributed the problem to “drastic temperatures,” which dropped to a low of 11 degrees on Thursday. He also added that workers were collaborating with the Environmental Protection Agency to restore pressure.

On Sunday, the city advised citizens to boil their water and to check for leaks and broken pipes in shops, churches, and other public buildings.

Ronnie Crudup, a state representative, said on Monday that most Jacksonians were experiencing low water pressure once more. “This holiday season, it’s a different issue because there is no water and people have relatives, guests, and everything else for Christmas.”

Crudup said that his family cannot flush toilets or take showers because there is no flowing water in his home.

It is merely the most recent issue to affect Jackson’s troubled water infrastructure, which previously failed during cold temperatures and experienced a days-long outage over the summer.

Over the weekend and on Monday, the city established water distribution points in a number of locations throughout Jackson. Residents were instructed not to report pressure loss because officials said the city was “fully aware of the system pressure difficulties.”

The 54-year-old Emon Thompson and his wife were sad to have to cancel on Christmas visitors. He claimed to be one of the few residents of his neighbourhood with access to running water, however the city’s boil water advisory made it unsafe to drink.

“If you allow it, it becomes gloomy,” said Thompson, a 33-year Jackson resident. “Especially over the holidays. “I’m just doing a lot of cleaning and other stuff, trying to keep my head up.”

According to Thompson, the water shortage on Christmas forced him and his wife to leave the church early because there were no functional facilities.

He stated, “It’s been a very difficult situation.

Many other localities are dealing with similar water issues as a result of the nation-wide occurrence of cold temperatures.

Due to line breaks, residents of Shreveport, Louisiana, and Florence, South Carolina, had little to no water pressure. Memphis, Tennessee, on the other hand, issued a precautionary boil water advisory on Monday and asked residents to use only as little non-essential water as possible while officials worked to fix water leaks, which they warned could take days to fix.

Cold weather has made Jackson’s water shortage worse. Residents were left without running water in early 2021 when pipes froze as a result of bitterly cold temperatures.

This year, the city’s major water treatment facility, the O.B. Curtis Water Plant, experienced issues as a result of flooding in the Pearl River, causing the city to lose running water.

An recommendation to boil water was issued both before and after the outage due to potential health risks.

In order to increase the stability of the water system in the short term, the federal government intervened in November and the Biden administration hired a manager. A winterization effort to make the system more resistant to severe weather was one of the top goals.

Crudup stated, “It’s just a stressful, unpleasant circumstance that we keep having to go through.”

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