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Kathy Sykes just started a petition to Governor Tate Reeves, the Mississippi State Legislature, and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba: Jackson, MS residents needs reliable access to clean water! |
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Dear John, I just started a petition titled "Tell Governor Tate Reeves, the Mississippi State Legislature, and Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba: Jackson, MS residents needs reliable access to clean water!" 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 bottled water we could use safely, while many people were turned away because there wasn’t enough to go around. This is an inhumane situation, but the people who live here know that the water crisis in Jackson is not new. 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. Join us and demand that Governor Reeves, the Mississippi State Legislature, and Mayor Lumumba release both a comprehensive plan and the funds we need to address the water crisis in Jackson, now. For decades, city workers at our local water plant, residents, and our local elected officials have been sounding the alarm. The city’s water system is old and needs immediate replacement and, with climate change getting worse, it was only a matter of time before a disaster like this happened. In 2021, over 40,000 Jackson residents went without water for weeks after winter storms froze and burst the city’s pipes.1 And in 2020, the EPA issued an Emergency Administrative Ordinance in Jackson after finding that several components of the city’s water treatment plant did not function properly, meaning our families and children have been drinking lead-poisoned water for decades.2 Like Flint, what’s happening in Jackson, a city that is over 80% Black, is environmental racism, and our elected officials deliberately ignored every warning and did almost nothing to stop this crisis from happening.3 When the state of Mississippi received millions of dollars from the federal government for COVID-19 emergency rental assistance, the governor sent it back, claiming that providing life-saving relief would make poor people “refuse to work.”4 Every time he has the opportunity to fulfill his most basic duties to his constituents in Jackson, he points fingers instead. But we won’t be silent. Access to clean water is a basic human right. We are going to organize until everyone who is responsible for this disaster is held accountable. Join us and demand that these politicians immediately release the funds needed to fix the water crisis in Jackson. Make your voice heard. Sign the petition now. It is clear that there is no immediate fix for this problem, but we need something done now. According to Mayor Lumumba, it is going to take at least one billion dollars to comprehensively replace the water system and sewer lines, and will likely require years of construction to fully complete.5 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. We’re calling on Governor Tate Reeves, the Mississippi State Legislature, and Mayor Lumumba to release a collective comprehensive plan for addressing the water crisis and to release the funds we need to fix it.
Thank you, Kathy Sykes
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