For upwards of four weeks, residents in Jackson, Mississippi have not had access to safe water. This water crisis is a result of decades of racist policies, a lack of federal investment in infrastructure, and an uncommon weather event that is becoming increasingly frequent due to the global climate crisis. From Jackson, Mississippi to Flint, Michigan to the Navajo Nation, Black and Indigenous communities are bearing the brunt of the pandemic and its impacts, water crises, and climate change due to federal and state neglect. To learn more about what’s happening in Jackson and to support organizers on-the-ground, visit People’s Advocacy Institute and Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy.
Please see below for a statement from Corporate Accountability’s Associate Water Campaign Director Alissa Weinman.
“The devastating impacts of systemic racism are on full display in Jackson, Mississippi, where decades of eroding federal support for public water infrastructure has left yet another majority-Black city in an impossible and dangerous situation.
These gross violations of the human right to water are happening amidst not only unprecedented extreme weather events, but also a pandemic. This must be a wake-up call to state and federal officials to commit to rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure to provide safe, reliable public water to all.”
