The fight for clean water as a public good is gathering strength across the nation. Below are some young voices from a Jackson, MS, Poor People’s Campaign event. Jackson has been suffering from government neglect of basic services like water. The privatization of the water is well underway. Naomi LaChance reported in The Lever that corporate greed played a major role in creating the crisis in the first place, and now there is a push to privatize the water system, despite the fact that parts of the systems already run privately are quite literally in ruins. Hear all of the speakers at the Poor People’s Campaign event in the video at https://bit.ly/JacksonPPC. — The Editors
Isaiah McCoy, youth activist with Jackson’s Peoples’ Assembly: `”Access to clean water is what separates a thriving community from a community that’s trying to survive. This water crisis has proven that necessity breeds action out of desperation.”
Riley Adams, student: “Purchasing bottled water is expensive and is a burden on mine and other families across the city. The lack of urgency from state and federal officials seems to be because a large percentage of the population is impoverished. Last November EPA administrator Michael Regan visited and witnessed first-hand the impact of this crisis. I thought to myself, thank goodness he’s here. Certainly, the federal government is going to rectify the situation expeditiously. Unfortunately, a year later we’re standing here fighting for the most basic resource for citizens. I’m for any representatives who have the power to make a change to do so right this instance. If it were your child having to use contaminated water, what would you do?”
Javion McDonald, student: “This water crisis has been hard on me and my family. My mom works hard, and she has to work harder trying to get bottles of water just so we don’t get sick. I hope the governor will fund this.”
Lorena Quiroz, Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity: “We are an organization of immigrant people fighting for the rights of immigrant people and for justice everywhere. We recognize we are standing on stolen lands of the Choctaw and Natchez Nations and that we’re fighting for stolen water. The forces that stole this land and water are the same forces that stole our ancestors lives and labor to develop this very land; the same forces that terrorize our people at the borders that they created. They’re the same folk who tell us that we don’t deserve safe spaces and safe water; that we have to let them privatize the water if we hope to get funding that we should have been getting for decades. We’ve watched them try to turn water distribution centers into deportation tracks for our people. Did you all know that we have ICE agents walking around in Jackson? Ice agents have no business at distribution centers harassing our people. Water is a human right! We will fight with you as long as it takes to free the land, clean the water, and keep it public. We want water, not ICE!”
Shamira Smith, student: “The community’s inability to have clean water is a violation of human rights. Not being able to properly shower, cook food, or even brush your teeth is not the way people should live in this nation, state, or in the 21st century. And that is why we are here to press our leaders to free the land, clean the water and keep it public.”
Angela Taylor, Disability Rights Activist and Advocate: “I have people calling me and they feel like they’re left out, that they don’t have a right to live. We have to take medication. I have friends that have to go as far as Hattiesburg for dialysis because the water isn’t fit.”
Darius: I’m 24. This has been happening before I can remember. It’s not just that we don’t have access to clean drinking water…we also don’t have access to water recreationally as well. The Pearl River has been privatized already. Jacksonians don’t have access to the river. The government’s role is to make laws that establish the social and political and economic landscape that we have. The government is absolutely to blame but we have the obligation to address the ideologies that separate us. We can’t continue to rely on the government. We have to save one another, and it starts right here.”
