5,000 signatures reached
To: Governor Tate Reeves, the Mississippi State Legislature, and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba
Jackson, MS residents need reliable access to clean water!
Governor Reeves, the Mississippi State Legislature, and Mayor Lumumba:
The people of Jackson, Mississippi are at risk. To Governor Reeves and the Mississippi State Legislature: by withholding of the crucial funds necessary make the necessary improvements to the Jackson water systems, you are committed targeted violence against your own constituents. To Mayor Lumumba: you must do everything you can at the local level and work with Governor Reeves and the state legislature to fix this crisis with all expediency. Your constituents are counting on you.
We are demanding that you work together to:
- Call a special session of the Mississippi State Legislature to address this crisis immediately;
- Release a joint comprehensive plan for addressing the water crisis in Jackson immediately;
- Release the designated infrastructure funding to address the water crisis in Jackson immediately;
- Drop the condition and requirement that the City of Jackson put up matching funds in order to sufficiently address the water crisis; and
- Issue a moratorium on water bills and shut-offs for all Jackson residents affected by the water crisis until reliable access to clean water is restored.
People have been sounding the alarm for years, and this crisis should come as a surprise to no one. This issue will not resolve on its own; it's up to your leadership to put an end to this crisis and you must do everything in your power to ensure Jackson's water system has the necessary improvements. Finally, Jackson should not have to fund-match to get the help the city and its residents so desperately need.
You were elected to serve the people, and you must do your job. The people demand that you meet our demands so that your constituents have reliable access to clean water.
Why is this important?
For over a week, more than 150,000 residents of Jackson, Mississippi did not have access to clean water. Our public schools were shut down. Our hospitals had to move patients, many of whom were in critical condition, out of the city to get care. And many of us had to wait outside in mile-long lines for water we could use safely, while many people were turned away because there wasn’t enough clean water to go around. This is an inhumane situation, but the people who live here know that the water crisis in Jackson is not new. In a city that is over 80% Black, the warning signs were there. For years, our state government has refused to do anything about our broken infrastructure and sewer system, which isn’t an invisible problem; our water pipes routinely collapse under us, causing our streets to cave in. And now, during a moment that is life and death for so many of us, Governor Tate Reeves and the Mississippi State Legislature are holding up the funding we need to fix the problem. They’re demanding that the City of Jackson match any state funding with money we do not have and should not be forced to give.
Poor people have suffered enough, and we don’t have the means to solve this on our own without our elected officials stepping up to the plate. They asked for us to vote for them and they got the job. Now, they need to deliver for the people.
We are demanding that Governor Reeves, the Mississippi State Legislature, and Mayor Lumumba work together to:
- Call a special session of the Mississippi State Legislature to address this crisis immediately;
- Release a joint comprehensive plan for addressing the water crisis in Jackson immediately;
- Release the designated infrastructure funding to address the water crisis in Jackson immediately;
- Drop the condition and requirement that the City of Jackson put up matching funds in order to sufficiently address the water crisis; and
- Issue a moratorium on water bills and shut-offs for all Jackson residents affected by the water crisis until reliable access to clean water is restored.
Something must be done now. According to Mayor Lumumba, it is going to take at least one billion dollars to comprehensively replace the water system, and will likely require years of construction to fully complete. But that investment is the bare minimum we should expect from the people we elected to lead. We don’t want excuses. We want action. Jackson, Mississippi needs reliable access to clean water.