US military intervenes to save Mississippi’s capital from thirst

The US military has been distributing bottles of water to the residents of Jackson, Mississippi, as a matter of urgency, in response to the acute crisis that the residents of the capital of this southern state are experiencing.

Large trucks loaded with hundreds of thousands of water bottles are lined up in a yard in Jackson where American soldiers are unloading them.

Much of Jackson’s water supply has failed after devastating floods, pipes are contaminated and the water is unfit to drink or even boil.

“The water flows very slowly in my house,” Mary Jones, 55, told AFP. “You know, it’s a terrible situation for the entire city of Jackson.”

“No one seems to know how to solve this problem,” says Jones, a widow and disabled person. “We’ve been dealing with this for years. It’s really funny to live in this reality as citizens.”

A major overhaul is carried out to restore the water pressure in the network. But until now, residents’ lives depended on plastic water bottles stored on pallets, with each resident receiving two bags at free distribution points.

“I can’t cook as much as I want, I can’t brush my teeth as much as I want,” says bus driver Nathina Thompson. Jackson is the largest city in Mississippi, one of the poorest states in the country. This city suffers from old problems with the water network, and the financial resources of the municipality are insufficient in light of the low tax base after the departure of the white population over the past forty years.

Today, more than 80 percent of the population is black, a quarter of whom live below the poverty line.

Source: AP

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