Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba has sent a letter to Gov. Tate Reeves, requesting emergency funding from the state and federal government to make the capital improvements necessary for the efficient operation of the city’s water treatment plants and distribution network.
In a March 3 letter to Reeves, the mayor wrote:
“We appreciate your deployment of the National Guard to assist with the distribution of non-potable water to Jackson residents. However, this disaster, along with the winter freeze of 2018, has emphasized the critical need for immediate repairs and improvements to our water distribution system. We can no longer afford to wait on funds to repair and improve our aging infrastructure. We need funding assistance from the State and federal agencies now.”
The mayor included along with his letter a list of needed improvements for plants and distribution lines with an estimated cost of about $47 million.
Jackson is in its third week of a crisis that has left many citizens and businesses without water to drink and flush toilets after extreme weather conditions in February compromised the ability to produce and distribute water at the O.B. Curtis and Fewell water treatment plants.
