The governor made fun of the water crisis in Jackson on Friday, a day after the state lifted a boil water advisory.
It is a wonderful day to be in Hattiesburg. It was a great day to not be in Jackson, as he said at the event on Friday. I feel like I should take off my emergency management director hat and leave it in the car, and also take off my public works director hat and leave it in the car.
People blasted the governor for making light of a public health emergency that has disproportionately affected people of color. Jackson residents were forced to boil their water for seven weeks because of fears that the water was contaminated and could cause illness. In late August, the city's main water treatment facility began to fail, forcing workers to change treatment processes. Many residents were left with no or low water pressure for a long time.
Ifill is a civil rights attorney and former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
"I think we can officially say that Tate, Ron, and Greg Abbott are the new axis of evil," someone said.
The representative did not reply to the request.
Jackson residents have grown used to going weeks without reliable drinking water due to years of deferred maintenance on its aging water infrastructure. While speaking to reporters last month about the lack of water pressure in the city's pipes, the mayor acknowledged that "it's not a matter of if our system would fail, but a matter of when our system would fail."
His office did not reply to the request for comment. The state has historically refused to help pay for repairs that have been impossible for the city to afford due to decades of white flight.
In recent weeks, residents took to social media to post about the water crisis, sharing videos of opaque brown water coming out of their taps and long lines of people in their cars waiting to pick up clean water. Although the latest boil-water notice was lifted on Thursday, health officials advised pregnant people and young children to take precautions due to high lead levels in some homes.
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