October 2022 digital edition

Cooperation
Jackson fights
for a solution
to the US city’s
water crisis
‘We must be
clear about
building and
fighting for
the practical
communitybased
solutions
to the water and
climate crisis’
By Miles Hadfield
In late August, around 15,000 residents in
Jackson, Mississippi, were left with no access to
safe drinking water after flooding knocked out a
treatment plant.
The crisis saw president Joe Biden declare a
federal emergency to trigger aid efforts – but
it has also intensified debate in the city over
alleged racial discrimination, infrastructure
neglect and shifting local demographics.
These issues have already brought efforts
to reform the city in the shape of Cooperation
Jackson, a network of worker co-ops which
wants to develop a series of democratic
institutions to empower workers and residents,
and address the needs of poor, unemployed,
Black or Latino people.
It has now launched the Justice 4 Jackson
campaign to fix the water system and put
right what it claims are “decades of systematic
and intentional neglect due to environmental
racism, capital flight and deindustrialisation”.
“This collapse didn’t have to happen,” it
says. “As a result of the city’s declining tax
base over the decade, it cannot pay for the
repairs by itself.”
Because Jackson is home to the state capitol
and serves as a base for the federal government,
its water system is used by those entities, and
“they must pay their fair share in overhauling
and modernising the system,” the campaign
argues. But, it claims, “the Republican,
predominantly white, party leadership
that has dominated state government for
generations now, fundamentally refuses”.
This echoes the frustrations of residents
who argue that systemic racism has led
to the neglect of a city with an 80% Black
population, with local activists telling NPR
they have had to boil water for decades. NPR
reports the city government’s frustration that
it does not receive the funds needed to fix
the infrastructure, while in turn, the state
government blames local mismanagement.
On the part of federal government, Michael
Regan, Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) administrator, said the city could be
eligible for government loans and support
under the Biden administration’s recent
infrastructure package, but warned this would
be contingent on “a plan that demonstrates
how those resources will be spent”.
Mississippi’s Republican state governor,
Tate Reeves, declared a state of emergency
in response to the water crisis on 30 August,
deploying the National Guard and instructing
the Mississippi Emergency Management
Agency to lead the effort in distributing
drinking water and non-drinking water to
the city.
His state government also opened seven
state distribution sites to offer bottled water,
bulk non-potable water and hand sanitiser.
“The state is marshalling tremendous
resources to protect the people of our capital
city,” said Reeves. “It will take time for that
to come to fruition. But we are here in times
of crisis, for anyone in the state who needs it.
That’s my responsibility as governor, and what
my administration is committed to.”
28 | OCTOBER 2022