The Power Of Community: Jackson Residents Finally Have A Say In Resolving The City’s Water Crisis

Heading into the summer of 2024 means it’s been almost two years since a state of emergency was declared due to the public health water crisis in Jackson, MS. And now city residents are finally getting a say in how to fix the infrastructure, which has been long besieged with problems.

When Jackson first made headlines in 2022 because of its unsafe water, the federal government stepped in. But hope was not restored after Ted Henifin, the engineer who was federally appointed, started to “run the city’s water system through a private company, despite Mayor Chokwe Lumumba’s objections.”

Currently, JXN Water, is the private corporation in Mississippi that is “responsible for conducting business related to the city’s water management.” Because it’s private, the company does not have to be transparent with its actions, and has not responded to citizen’s information requests. As a result, advocates sent the EPA a letter last July, requesting to become more involved.  

After a nearly year-long battle, a federal judge finally approved a motion allowing two civil rights organizations to become parties to the legal proceedings with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Now, the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign and the People’s Advocacy Group are officially named in the federal Safe Drinking Water Act case.

“This moment signifies a pivotal shift in the fight for clean water and the restoration of public oversight of Jackson’s decaying and dangerous water infrastructure,” stated Danyelle Holmes, a Poor People’s Campaign senior national social justice organizer. “Communities must have a say over the critical matters in our lives, and we are committed to ensuring the community is heard by any means necessary.”

Mikaila Hernandez, a Center for Constitutional Rights attorney said, “The intervention not only grants these organizations access to directly participate in the lawsuit as parties, it also sets a precedent for community involvement in the governance of essential public services…It represents a step toward rectifying decades of underinvestment and neglect in Jackson’s water system.”

At the end of March on the heels of this judicial decision, the NAACP National branch, “the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP and the Jackson Branch of the NAACP sent a letter to requesting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and to JXN Water, Inc. to establish a Community Advisory Council to accomplish the appropriate consultation from the residents of Jackson, MS regarding the city’s water crisis.”

Advocates hope that having a legal stake will help Jackson residents “ward off privatization. The saga in Jackson reflects a wider problem affecting public utilities across the country, with cash-strapped local governments turning to corporations to make badly needed repairs to water treatment plants, distribution pipes, and storage systems, a course that often limits transparency and boxes locals out of the decision-making,” the Grist reports.