President Joe Biden has pledged federal support to Jackson, Mississippi, where a crisis has left the city without enough water to fight fires or flush toilets.
The recent rain storms – along with outstanding issues with the water system – have brought the crisis to a head.
Biden on Wednesday called Mayor Chokwe Lumumba of Jackson, the White House said, to discuss the situation.
‘The President expressed his determination to provide Federal support to address the immediate crisis and the longer term effort to rebuild Jackson’s water infrastructure,’ the White House said in a readout of the call.
Biden approved an emergency declaration for the state on Monday night.
Beyond addressing the immediate crisis, Biden said he wants to provide federal support for the longer term effort to rebuild Jackson’s aging water infrastructure, which has been unreliable for years.
Even before the service disruption, Jackson’s 150,000 residents had been boiling their drinking water for the past month because …