South Jackson residents are fed up with the water crisis

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JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) — It was a packed house inside the Glory Empowerment Center in South Jackson on Monday night as residents took their questions and frustrations directly to the man in charge of the city’s water system.

Acting manager Ted Henifin listed a number of things he hopes to accomplish while in Jackson.

For example, he mentioned getting a new database setup for residents to report billing issues as well as a computerized map that will show exactly where pipes are leaking and where pressure is low.

These are two things that most residents were excited to hear about, but you could tell their interest was less in what was going to help them in the coming months and more on what was going to help them tomorrow.

The Monday evening town hall started with a simple question: who in the audience has been affected by this water crisis since the Friday before Christmas?

The question was posed by Monday’s meeting host, Jackson Ward 6 Councilman Aaron Banks, and it elicited an unhappy response as nearly everyone inside the church stood up. the hand.

It was hard not to feel the frustration of those there as residents shared their war stories from the past two holiday weekends.

My son came home from the army. He came to spend Christmas here because he is leaving for a 10 month mission in Korea. We woke up on Christmas morning to open presents, and the biggest Christmas present we received was nothing that came out of our pipes, a resident said.

Attendees spent much of the town hall listening to Henifin and reacting to hearing things they hadn’t known for years.

We don’t know anything about our distribution system. We don’t know where the valves are. We don’t know what position they are in. We have no record of that. We couldn’t find any of that information, Henifin said.

I blame our mayor and all our former mayors because what you just explained to us – not knowing where all the valves are and all that – is very unacceptable, a resident replied.

Henifin has made it clear to the people of South Jackson that he won’t be leaving anytime soon.

I was not there when [the crisis] started, but I’ll be there when it’s over. Were going to fix this thing, he said.

Henifin said the city should use between 18 million and 20 million gallons of water a day, but factories are instead sending 45 million to 50 million gallons a day. He said it shows how much water is lost through leaks.

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