JACKSON, United States, April 5, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - Every morning, 180
students at a school in Jackson, Mississippi have to board a bus to be taken
to another nearby school. The reason? Their school lacks the water pressure
needed to flush its own toilets.

  Cheryl Brown, the principal at Wilkins Elementary -- where 98 percent of
the 400 students are African American and most come from underprivileged
backgrounds -- doesn't hide her frustration.

  "It's hard. It's very hard," she told AFP.

  "It's taxing on the boys and girls," who spend much of the day at the other
school before heading back to Wilkins in the afternoon. "It's taxing on the
staff members," she said.

  Jackson is undergoing a severe water crisis -- despite its status as a
state capital in one of the richest countries in the world.

  Late last year, President Joe Biden signed into law a $1 trillion package
to address badly deteriorated infrastructure like Jackson's.

  The city's water system has suffered "significant deficiencies" since 2016,
reports from the southern state's health department found.

  Both the causes and symptoms of the crisis are clear: water flows from old
and unmaintained treatment plants -- one is 100 years old -- through leaking,
century-old pipes. When it comes out of city taps, it's sometimes rust-brown
-- and always contaminated with lead.

  "The distribution lines are aging, and a master plan for pipe
replacement... is not being implemented," the US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) wrote in a 2020 report.

  It said the city loses as much as 50 percent of its water -- a stunning
amount -- through the decrepit system.

  As a result, "three local hospitals have drilled their own wells... to have
access to reliable sources of drinking water."

  - No isolated case -

  Jackson, a city of 155,000, is not the only US city to face such a crisis.

  One of the worst US public health scandals in years came when the details
of poor water quality management were exposed in the northern industrial city
of Flint, Michigan.

  A budget crisis prompted that city to change its water source, leaving
thousands of residents exposed to dangerously high lead levels.

  Both Flint and Jackson are majority Black, which for many observers
confirms the existence of "environmental racism" -- with African Americans
disproportionately affected by pollution.

  Brown, the Wilkins principal, does not like to dwell on the issue.

  But after relying for weeks on portable toilets -- forcing students to
stand in long lines to wait their turn -- she now worries that the daily bus
trips to another school are cutting into instruction time.

  Charles Williams, who will be retiring as Jackson public works director
this month after a long, wearying battle with the water crisis, told AFP the
problems facing Jackson are complex.

  "This didn't happen overnight," he said. "This was delayed maintenance and
lack of funding."

  He estimated the cost of updating the city's water system at $3 billion to
$5 billion -- no small sum for a medium-sized city.

  How much help Jackson might get from the big US infrastructure package is
not yet clear, though the EPA has encouraged "communities such as Jackson
with critical water infrastructure needs" to apply.

  A lengthy investigative article in the Mississippi Free Press by journalist
Nick Judin identified two problems underlying Jackson's woes: a past drop in
EPA funding for local water projects and a population exodus from the city to
the suburbs.

  Having lost a fourth of its population since 1980, Jackson's tax base has
dropped accordingly.

  Judin also blames the sometimes chaotic administration of the water system,
which has resulted in some residents receiving bills intermittently while
"some people don't get billed at all."

  - 'This is not normal' -

  In late 2012, the city contracted with German technology company Siemens to
install new water meters, update the billing system and complete
infrastructure work.

  But early in 2020, the group agreed to reimburse the city $90 million after
the city said Siemens had failed to ensure its water meters and software
system were compatible.

  An unusually cold winter then resulted in the main water treatment plant
shutting down and numerous old water pipes bursting.

  Since then, things have gotten no better, local residents told AFP.

  "We haven't drunk the (city) water in about 12 years," said Priscilla
Sterling, standing on the sidewalk of Farish Street in a once-prosperous
Black business district.

  "You're still taking a chance when you bathe in it."

  Barbara Davis works in a Jackson church. She turns on a tap to show the
rust-brown water flowing out.

  "This is not how you're supposed to live," she said. "You know, this is not
normal. It's not normal at all."

  In one hard-hit neighborhood, an NGO called 501CTHREE has brought in a
water filtration device where residents can fill jugs with clean water.

  "Everybody can't go to the store and buy water," said Terun Moore, who
works with a local NGO, Strong Arms of Jackson.

  The city, for its part, insists that Jackson water, brown though it may be,
is safe -- except for pregnant women and children.

  Not one local resident interviewed by AFP said they trust assessment.