In a news conference, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba (D) said his administration would work with a “coalition of the willing” to “improve the system that has been failing for decades.”
But he also highlighted the years of neglect that led to the disaster, arguing that his city deserved better. “We’ve been going it alone for the better part of two years when it comes to the Jackson water crisis,” Lumumba said, adding that it was never a “matter of if our system will fail but when.”
Jackson, which is 82 percent Black, had been under a boil-water advisory for the past month, after trouble with the main pumps at the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plant. The situation escalated this week, after heavy rainfall and near-record flooding on the Pearl River completely knocked out service at the city’s primary water treatment plant.
As of Tuesday morning, some neighborhoods in Jackson had no running water. Jackson Public Schools said that starting Tuesday, all of its schools would shift to virtual learning.
Experts say this crisis was years in the making, a result of inadequate funding for essential infrastructure upgrades and tension between leaders of this majority-Black, Democrat-led city and the White Republicans who run the state.
Mukesh Kumar, who ran Jackson’s Department of Planning and Development from 2017 to 2019, said the seeds of the water crisis were planted in the 1960s, when White residents left the city in droves after federal courts mandated the integration of the city’s schools.
As the city shrunk, there was less money to fund schools and other resources. Middle-class Black families left as a result, leaving Jackson without the tax revenue it needed to upgrade its century-old water system.
State investment would have helped close the gap, Kumar said. But state officials repeatedly declined to fund improvements, leaving the city to fend for itself, he added.
“It sounds like they’re still fighting the same kind of battles with the same lines drawn instead of starting to prioritize what the people of Jackson need,” said Kumar, who has since left Jackson to run the Waco Metropolitan Planning Organization in Texas.
Gov. Tate Reeves (R) did not respond to interview requests from The Washington Post. On Tuesday, Reeves declared a state of emergency and activated the Mississippi Guard.
“The state is marshaling tremendous resources to protect the people of our capital city,” Reeves said in a statement. “It will take time for that to come to fruition. But we are here in times of crisis, for anyone in the state who needs it.” Reeves said the state was prepared to distribute water from alternative sources for “as long as we have to.”
But he also highlighted the complexity of the task facing officials. “Replacing our largest city’s infrastructure of running water with human distribution is a massively complicated logistical task,” he said in a statement.
In a news conference Monday night, Reeves appeared to suggest that Lumumba had kept state officials in the dark about the status of the water treatment plant, suggesting that the city had been unable to provide the state with a timeline of when the plant would be in “proper” operating condition. Lumumba, who was elected to a second term last year, was not at the briefing.
At a Tuesday news conference, Lumumba said his administration had been transparent with state officials.
Jackson has struggled for years with water issues. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan toured the city’s main plant last year to highlight what his agency called “long-standing environmental justice concerns in historically marginalized communities.”
In March, the agency issued an emergency order stating that the city’s water system presented “imminent and substantial endangerment” to residents and could contain E. coli bacteria. Last year, as President Biden campaigned for his infrastructure legislation, he said that “never again can we allow what happened in Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi.”
But Reeves and other officials have repeatedly opposed efforts to fund water treatment upgrades.
State lawmakers sunk efforts by the city to raise infrastructure funds through a sales tax increase. During winter 2021, when at least 40,000 Jackson residents went weeks without running water, Reeves told city leaders that they needed to do a better job “collecting their water bill payments before they start going and asking everyone else to pony up more money.” (In 2020, Reeves vetoed bipartisan legislation that would have provided relief to poor residents with past-due water bills, calling the idea “free money.”)
A 2021 bill that would have authorized a bond issuance to assist Jackson with making repairs and improvements to water and sewer systems died in the Republican-controlled state House Ways and Means committee.
In the wake of the water crisis, Democratic state officials have called on the state to take action.
“The state, with unprecedented money in the bank, must step up and invest in Jackson, and save a system that serves almost one-tenth of all Mississippians,” David Blount, a Democratic state senator whose district includes parts of the city of Jackson, said in a statement, adding, “We need to act now.”
Kumar worries that the situation in Jackson is a harbinger of other crises if cities are left to deal with the effects of climate change.
“Building a resilient infrastructure system is not something that a poor city of 150,000 people will be able to magically just build very quickly,” he said.
Kumar said that money from Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, passed earlier this year, could also help address those urgent needs. But some experts warn that it might not be so easy.
“Anyone who thinks Mississippi will change the very consistent practice of not investing in Black people — they’re delusional,” Andre M. Perry, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told The Post late last year. “If you’re the president of the United States and you have an equity agenda, you have to be worried that this money going to statehouses will not actually get to places like Jackson.”
Griff Witte contributed to this report.
#Jackson #water #crisis #treatment #plant #fails
https://www.globalcourant.com/jackson-miss-in-water-crisis-as-treatment-plant-fails/?feed_id=18170&_unique_id=630f045d103d4
Reservoir police observe the water release from the Ross Barnett Reservoir Spillway onto the Pearl River, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022, in Rankin County, Miss. Rogelio V. Solis | AP
The governor said the exact cause of failure was unknown, adding that the treatment plant had been inadequately staffed and operated for years. Reeves said the plant's two primary pumps had stopped working, which left the system to depend on unreliable backup pumps. "It's not operating anywhere near capacity," Reeves said of the plant. "We might find out [Tuesday] it's not operating at all. We'll find out." The water crisis is affecting the roughly 150,000 people who live in Jackson and the 30,000 who live in surrounding communities that rely on the same water treatment facility. Jackson is about 82% Black, according to U.S. Census data. In addition to the unreliable water system, the city has been grappling with crime and problematic infrastructure.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency is distributing water to residents and the state is overseeing efforts to begin emergency repairs and maintenance to get the water system up and running, the governor said.
#Mississippi #governor #declares #emergency #Jackson #water #crisis
https://www.globalcourant.com/mississippi-governor-declares-emergency-amid-jackson-water-crisis/?feed_id=17974&_unique_id=630e76ecc8d08
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y. ripped Gov. Kathy Hochul's soft-on-crime bail reform policies on "Fox News Live" Sunday, urging New Yorkers to elect a new governor to begin seeing change in the communities.
2 MORE MIGRANT BUSES FROM TEXAS ARRIVE IN NYC AS BORDER CRISIS CONTINUES REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS: This is a really terrible situation and should be eye-opening for the people in New York to elect a new governor because it was the governor's bail reform policy that is releasing people back onto the streets, including those individuals. New York City has a sanctuary policy that protects people in this country illegally committing crimes. I represent a community very diverse. We have a large immigrant population, including my own parents, but they were never incentivized with free hotel rooms that the taxpayers are paying for, free college, free education, and also the things that I mentioned before. They were never incentivized in this manner. They were only given the opportunity to come here and work hard, and I don't know why this mayor is rolling out the red carpet and offering to pay for people to be placed in hotel rooms when New Yorkers are really struggling right now with cost of living, with inflation, they're leaving our state in droves because they can't afford to live here. Now they want them to foot the bill for all these other expenses that the mayor and the governor incentivize. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW BELOW
Source
https://www.globalcourant.com/new-york-democrats-ripped-over-migrant-crisis-crime-surge-disaster-for-everybody-involved/?feed_id=13926&_unique_id=63027f133a08d
President Joe Biden has signed into law a $430 billion bill that is seen as the biggest climate package in US history, designed to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions as well as lower prescription drug prices.
Biden was joined by Democratic leaders including Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, whose support was crucial to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act along party lines after he had initially opposed a similar measure.
"Joe, we never had a doubt," Biden said of Manchin on Tuesday at the White House.
Biden used the event to criticise Republicans as he sought to use a string of Democratic-led legislative victories to help boost Democrats in congressional midterm elections in November.
"In this historic moment, Democrats sided with the American people and every single Republican sided with the special interests," said Biden.
"Every single Republican in Congress voted against this bill," he added.
READ MORE: US lawmakers pass massive climate, health bill in big win for Biden
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHWSdHFxXl8[/embed]
"Democrats robbed Americans"
It will also allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for the elderly and ensure that corporations and the wealthy pay the taxes they owe.
Democrats say it will help combat inflation by reducing the federal deficit.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the new law will have the opposite impact.
"Democrats robbed Americans last year by spending our economy into record inflation. This year, their solution is to do it a second time. The partisan bill President Biden signed into law today means higher taxes, higher energy bills, and aggressive IRS audits," he said, referring to the Internal Revenue Service.
READ MORE: Senate Democrats pass $740B 'Inflation Reduction Act' package in US
Source: Reuters
Bangladesh has urged the United Nations to effectively engage with Myanmar in the sustainable repatriation of the displaced Rohingya people to their home country of Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen made the appeal while meeting with the visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in the capital Dhaka on Sunday evening, said a Foreign Ministry statement.
“Protracted stay of the displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh bears the risk of the spread of radicalism, transnational crimes, etc., and thus may hamper regional stability,” the statement quoted Momen as saying.
Claiming that the Bangladesh government has been taking good care of the persecuted Rohingya since the very beginning and even during the pandemic by providing vaccines, Momen urged the UN system, including UNDP, “to undertake projects in Rakhine to create a conducive environment for the return of the Rohingya.”
READ MORE: Bangladesh seeks China's help for Rohingya repatriation
Safe and voluntary return
Bachelet assured the host country of the “UN’s continued efforts to realise the safe and voluntary return of the Rohingya to Myanmar.”
But for a better and conducive life in Bangladesh until the peaceful repatriation, she underscored the need for their (Rohingya) "education through fully operationalising the learning centres in the camps," the statement added.
Bachelet had a busy day on her first day, also meeting Law Minister Anisul Huq, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, and Education Minister Dr. Dipu Moni.
The issues discussed during her meetings with the high officials include Bangladesh’s controversial Digital Security Act (DSA) which the critics have marked as “a draconian law” enacted before the 2018 general election to politically harass the opposition voices.
Huq, however, told the UN rights chief that the act was enacted to combat cybercrimes.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-3cT6pL75c[/embed]
Assessing rights situation
The UN human rights chief arrived in Bangladesh in the morning on a 4-day official visit to assess the state of human rights in the South Asian nation and monitor the plight of the persecuted Rohingya community.
This is the first-ever official tour of any UN rights chief to Bangladesh, a country of more than 165 million people.
During her tour, Bachelet will meet Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her Cabinet and members of the civil society.
She will also interact with the National Human Rights Commission in Bangladesh and youth representatives.
Also on the agenda are meetings with Rohingya refugees in the border district of Cox’s Bazar.
Bangladesh is currently hosting more than 1.2 million Rohingya, most of whom fled a brutal military crackdown in the home country of Myanmar’s Rakhine state in August 2017.
READ MORE: Rohingya praise US for recognising their genocide in Myanmar
Source: AA
Sri Lanka's new president Ranil Wickremesinghe has formally invited MPs to join an all-party unity government to revive the bankrupt economy by undertaking painful reforms, his office has said.
In a meeting on Saturday with the influential monks of the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, one of Buddhism's most sacred shrines, Wickremesinghe outlined his plans.
"As the president, I wish to start a new journey," Wickremesinghe was quoted by his office as telling the monks in his first meeting with the powerful Buddhist clergy since taking office.
"I would like to get all the parties together and go on that journey as well as to form an all-party government."
He has written to all lawmakers asking them to join a unity government.
Wickremesinghe took office earlier this month after public anger over the island nation's worst economic crisis forced his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and quit.
READ MORE: Sri Lanka delays agreement with IMF 'due to unrest'
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Mp-DQsIhc[/embed]
Wickremesinghe's rise to power
A former opposition MP, Wickremesinghe, 73, took up the premiership for the sixth time in May after Rajapaksa's elder brother Mahinda resigned and there were no other takers for the job.
Wickremesinghe went onto become the president after Gotabaya escaped on July 9 when tens of thousands of protesters angry at the economic crisis stormed the presidential palace.
He fled to Singapore from where he resigned five days later and Wickremesinghe became interim president and later won a vote in parliament confirming his ascension.
Sri Lanka's 22 million people have endured months of lengthy blackouts, record inflation and shortages of food, fuel and medicines.
Since late last year, the country has run out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports.
In April, Sri Lanka defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt and opened bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund.
READ MORE: World Bank not to offer new funding for bankrupt Sri Lanka
Expanding cabinet
Wickremesinghe told monks that the economy would decline further this year with a contraction of 7.0 percent, but expected a recovery next year.
"I am working to re-stabilise this economy and build the economy in such a way that the country can be developed by 2023, 2024.
"It is a difficult task. But if you don't do it now, it will be more difficult. We should think about whether we should try to cure the patient by giving medicine or let the patient die without giving medicine," he added.
After he was elected president, Wickremesinghe appointed an interim cabinet leaving the door open for others to join.
He has called a new session of parliament from Wednesday and is expected to expand the 18-member cabinet to accommodate members from opposition parties.
READ MORE: For ordinary Sri Lankans every day is a battle
Source: TRTWorld and agencies
HAVANA: The Cuban capital of Havana will begin electricity blackouts in August, has canceled carnival and is taking other measures as the country’s energy crisis worsens, state media reported on Saturday.
The capital, home to a fifth of the population of 11.2 million and center of economic activity in Cuba, had been spared the daily power outages of four or more hours that the rest of the island has endured for months.
Blackouts have sparked a few small local protests this summer and a year ago in July fueled a day of unprecedented unrest across the country as discontent boiled over.
For now, a schedule of power outages will mean each of Havana’s six municipalities will have its electricity cut every three days during peak mid-day hours, according to the local Communist Party daily, Tribuna de la Habana, which reported on a meeting of local authorities.
The blackouts reflect a deepening economic crisis that began with harsh new U.S. sanctions on the island in 2019 and worsened with the pandemic that gutted tourism, and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Soaring prices for food, fuel and shipping have exposed import dependence and vulnerabilities such as a decaying infrastructure. The country’s economy declined 10.9% in 2020, recovering just 1.3% last year.
Cubans have withstood more than two years of food and medicine shortages, long lines to purchase scarce goods, high prices and transportation woes. The blackouts have only added to the frustration, leading to an exodus of more than 150,000 Cubans since October to the United States, and more elsewhere.
“This is the moment to show solidarity and contribute so that the rest of Cuba suffers less from the undesirable blackouts,” Havana Communist Party leader Luis Antonio Torres was quoted by Tribuna as stating.
Torres, and others at the meeting insisted they were acting in solidarity with fellow Cubans, not from necessity, and announced other measures such as mass vacations to shutter state-run companies, working from home and a 20% cut in energy allocations for private businesses with high consumption. The cancelled carnival had been due to take place next month.
Jorge Pinon, director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Latin America and Caribbean Energy and Environment Program, said offered a different assessment from Torres. He said the entire power grid was near collapse after recent fires in two of 20 already obsolete plants, with others constantly breaking down.
“When you keep running the equipment past its capital maintenance schedule it falls into a downward spiral with no short term solution,” he told Reuters.
“The announced scheduled blackouts are not in solidarity but rather a necessity to avoid a possible total collapse of the system,” Pinon said.
The Biden administration has said the government will plant more than one billion trees across millions of acres of burned and dead woodlands in the US West, as officials struggle to counter the increasing toll on the nation's forests from wildfires, insects and other manifestations of the climate crisis.
"Our forests, rural communities, agriculture and economy are connected across a shared landscape and their existence is at stake," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement on Monday announcing the reforestation plan.
"Only through bold, climate-smart actions ... can we ensure their future."
Destructive fires in recent years that burned too hot for forests to regrow naturally have far outpaced the government's capacity to plant new trees. That has created a backlog of 4.1 million acres in need of replanting, officials said.
The US Agriculture Department said it will have to quadruple the number of tree seedlings produced by nurseries to get through the backlog and meet future needs.
That comes after Congress last year passed bipartisan legislation directing the Forest Service to plant 1.2 billion trees over the next decade and after President Joe Biden in April ordered the agency to make the nation's forests more resilient as the globe gets hotter.
Officials had to pursue a more piecemeal approach with incremental measures such as Monday's announcement since most of the administration's agenda on the climate crisis remains stalled due to disagreements within Congress.
To erase the backlog of decimated forest acreage, the Forest Service plans over the next couple of years to scale up work from about 60,000 acres replanted last year to about 400,000 acres annually, officials said.
READ MORE: Firefighters begin to slow California wildfire near Yosemite
Challenging year
Blazes have charred 5.6 million acres so far in the US this year, putting 2022 on track to match or exceed the record-setting 2015 fire season, when 10.1 million acres burned.
Many forests regenerate naturally after fires, but if the blazes get too intense they can leave behind barren landscapes that linger for decades before trees come back.
The Forest Service this year is spending more than $100 million on reforestation work and is expected to further increase in coming years, to as much as $260 million annually.
To prevent replanted areas from becoming similarly overgrown, practices are changing so reforested stands are less dense with trees and therefore less fire-prone, said Joe Fargione, science director for North America at the Nature Conservancy.
But challenges to the Forest Service's goal remain, from finding enough seeds to hiring enough workers to plant them, Fargione said.
Many seedlings will die before reaching maturity due to drought and insects, both of which can be exacerbated by the climate crisis.
Living trees are a major “sink” for carbon dioxide that’s driving the climate crisis when it enters the atmosphere, Fargione said. That means replacing those that die is important to keep climate change from getting even worse.
READ MORE: Thousands evacuated as 'explosive' California wildfire widens
Source: AP
