WaPo: “Jackson’s water crisis has been rightly described as a “climate justice wake-up call.” Decades of neglect led to a deteriorating water system that reached a breaking point this summer. When torrential rains caused a flood near Jackson’s largest water treatment plant in August — coming on top of staffing shortages and equipment failures — a major pump was damaged, a chemical imbalance was created, and the plant shut down. With that, the city of more than 160,000 residents lost access to safe drinking water. Though a boil-water advisory was recently lifted after six weeks, the crisis is far from over. Jackson has faced recurring disruptions, and the underlying causes have not been addressed….
What’s happening in Jackson echoes previous disasters in Flint, Mich., and Newark and is accompanied by other ongoing crises that disproportionately affect people of color. A recent investigation of Chicago’s tap water found that 1 in 20 homes tested had lead levels above the federal limit — with the highest found in majority-Black and -Hispanic neighborhoods. And in Nevada, an increasing number of Native American households lack any indoor plumbing….
In an interview with the Southern Poverty Law Center, one Jackson woman described how her tap water had been unusable even before the latest crisis, with her doctor warning against giving it to her young children. Visiting family out of town, she and her kids were shocked to learn they could use water from the tap to brush their teeth. “We deserve,” she said, “to live like everyone else in the United States.””