Jackson’s water crisis, explained

"They don't care about the Black folk."  The year is 2022, and this U.S. city has no clean water. Here’s how Jackson, Mississippi, got here …

Transcript

00:00I can't wash my hands boy, can't flush the toilet.

00:06People down here need help.

00:08To me, they just let you know they don't care about the black folk, in my opinion.

00:18Nothing is coming out of my water pipes.

00:22Jackson.

00:30So

00:39please make sure in the shower that your mouth's not open because again,

00:43you do not want to ingest the water.

00:45Quick little life update.

00:46My day has not been great.

00:48It has not been good.

00:49It's been terrible.

00:50I miss my flight to Ohio.

00:52It's sad.

00:53It is so sad and it's something need to be done.

00:56We cannot even flush the toilet or nothing.

01:00It is so bad.

01:11I know that you and the press really want to play the blame game.

01:14We find ourselves in this position because of a lot of different reasons.

01:18A myriad of things that occurred over a long period of time.

01:26So

01:38I mean, it's a travesty that this happening in this day and age.

01:42But at the same time, when the infrastructure is outdated,

01:45these are the type of problems that we have.

01:47The governor is blamed for it because he wouldn't give the funds to Jackson to help him.

01:56So

02:14in this area right here, we've been having this problem here for a long time.

02:17To me, that just let you know they don't care about the black folk, in my opinion.

02:22There's something that we call red light,

02:24where one side of the track gets something that the other side doesn't.

02:27Traditionally and historically, there are cities,

02:30specifically minority cities, that get their lack of attention.

02:43It's messed up.

02:45It's messed up.

02:46Like the old saying says, you never miss your water till your well run dry.

02:54So

03:14as you can see, it's still all dark.

03:16We're going to be boiling anything that we use.

03:18Even when the pressure is restored, even when we're not under a bowl of water notice,

03:23it's not a matter of if these systems will fail, but when these systems will fail.