Free Republic

Whether Republican or Democrat, white or black, Jackson residents deserve better. Mississippi needs a strong capital city,” Latino writes. On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall, ravaging the Mississippi Gulf Coast with record storm surge. On the 17th anniversary of one of the worst natural disasters in state history, Governor Tate Reeves stepped to a podium this week to announce another water-related disaster. The governor’s message: The City of Jackson’s Public Water System (“PWS”) had failed, and residents would have inconsistent and unsafe water supply for the foreseeable future. Though this crisis is only now gaining national attention, it...

According to multiple sources on-site and close to the State of Mississippi’s intervention in Jackson’s O. B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant that were not authorized to speak publicly, state Health and Emergency Management officials were met with a mix of “grateful faces” from a severely overworked and critically understaffed facility workforce operating in “fundamentally unsafe conditions” that needed to be immediately addressed. Critically unsafe municipal staffing levels were discovered when state officials arrived on-site. Particularly in the overnight hours, staff had dwindled to one operator on-site tasked with handling both the membrane and conventional filtering systems leaving a single point...

Lily Cole, Keira Knightley and Kelly Brook were chosen as spokesmodels to draw attention to the problem of fresh water access. All have been photographed underwater by Oscar winning photographer, Candice for the charity fresh2o. “These extraordinary portraits are designed to connect, engage and motivate consumers worldwide, alerting the globe to the fresh water crisis,” say fresh2o’s website.