Why don’t Jackson, Mississippi, residents have water?

Flooding exacerbated existing problems with Jackson, Mississippi’s water infrastructure, leaving the city with more than 150,000 residents without potable water to drink.

The most immediate cause of the problem was flooding from the city’s Pearl River that ran into the streets. This flooding caused issues at the city’s O.B. Curtis Water Plant on Monday.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) said in a Monday night press conference that the water treatment facility’s main pumps had been severely damaged, and that the facility was using smaller backup pumps.

He said that some frontline workers tried to hold the system together, but that the system was expected to eventually fail.