Everywhere and nowhere, at the same time

It’s a rough time to be one of the ~160,000 people living in Jackson – Mississippi’s largest city. After being “plagued with problems for years,” per Mississippi Today, the city’s drinking water system is failing.

Officials declared a state of emergency on Monday when pumps at the city's water-treatment plant failed after days of rainfall, leaving residents with little to no water pressure. And per state authorities, it’s unclear when service will be restored.

• “Until it is fixed, it means we do not have reliable running water at scale,” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said during an emergency briefing on Monday evening. “It means the city cannot produce enough water to fight fires, to reliably flush toilets, and to meet other critical needs.”

🚰 In the meantime: The National Guard was activated yesterday to help distribute bottled water, as crews work to get the treatment plant back online. People were seen waiting in lines more than a mile long at Hawkins Field Airport, CNN reports – all for just one case of water.

👀 Looking ahead… To understand the next steps, we have to quickly revisit the problems. The city is currently plagued with two water issues: 1) quantity and 2) quality.

• Quantity refers to the recent water pressure issues (which will be fixed when the pumps start working again), but the quality issue runs a bit deeper… and may cost billions to fix, according to Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba.