The failure of the largest water treatment plant in Jackson, Miss., has left more than 150,000 residents in the state capital without access to safe running water, officials said.
The water system has been operating under duress for years, with aging infrastructure causing disruptions in service and frequent boil-water notices, the New York Times reported.
However, the failure of pumps at the city’s main water treatment plant on Monday left homes and business with little to no water pressure. Water that did make its way to residents was likely delivered straight from the city’s reservoir and was unsafe to consume, officials told residents.
The lack of water caused public schools in the city to switch to online learning.
“Until it is fixed, it means we do not have reliable running water at scale,” Governor Tate Reeves said during a briefing on Monday. “It means the city cannot produce enough water to fight fires, to reliably flush toilets, and to meet other critical needs.”
Reeves said that even ahead of flooding that sparked the failure at the water treatment plant, the city’s system was in rough shape.
“It was a near certainty that Jackson would begin to fail to produce running water sometime in the next several weeks or months if something didn’t materially improve,” the governor said.
While city officials said the water shortage is likely to last a couple of days, Reeves said it was unclear how long it would take to fix the shortage. In the meantime, the city is gathering cases of water to distribute to city residents at fire stations.
“Leave these resources for those who absolutely need them,” Reeves said, suggesting that residents who can afford to buy their own bottled water do so.