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In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

washingtonpost.com

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Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#131

Post by systemvoltage »

Bud wrote: post #120
Mountain_Skies wrote: post #112

For those turning this into a race issue, the United States has a large number of black controlled cities who have no problem keeping their water systems running. This isn't about race, it's about the particular leaders in Jackson not making the water system a priority. Every other excuse made here applies to other towns who have no problems keeping their water running and clean. Maybe you should ask yourself why you…

"Turning this into" a race issue? It is a race issue. You're simply making things up about Jackson's leaders and hoping they will stick. Well, they don't stick. Jackson has repeatedly appealed for funding to address this issue and they have been repeatedly denied that funding by the state's Republican leaders. Maybe you should ask yourself why you're so lazy that you're unwilling to research the issue, and also so wi…

Do we have a concrete proof besides suspecting malicious motives and quickly jumping to conclusions about racial discrimination?

I am seeing a lot of knee-jerk reaction from our media. Everything is about race. All the fricking time. It is a "systemic" problem that gets blamed at some ulterior level that cannot be proven or challenged. And btw, if you question it, you're a bigot. This is a great way to make zero progress because we've given up the cause to a nation wide racial discrimination problem and therefore, we must not look at incompetency in local government for instance in this case.

I guess my problem is how do we know if it is a race problem or not? Surely not every conflict between two races is from racism. US has been a melting pot for many decades and lot of people coexist fine from various cultures.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#132

Post by sroussey »

hosh wrote: post #72
boeingUH60 wrote: post #45

Where I reside..what you’ll call a third-world country (Nigeria), everyone who builds a home digs their personal water borehole and sewage system because our government is too incompetent to maintain city-wide infrastructure. I’ve always thought it would be much better if we can get centralized systems for these things as they do in developed countries, but I’m pretty sure this is the type of thing we would see regul…

Having better local sources of water and treatment may turn out to he a better idea than centralized water treatment. Here in the US, water is pumped (often uphill) and purified to drinking water standards, only for 70% of residential water used for watering green lawns. Those lawns are usually grown in a way where soil microbes are killed off, water retention capability are reduced (so it needs more water), and the…

In Irvine, California, homes are plumbed with two water lines: potable, and greywater. So even in the middle of a drought, everything is green.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#133

Post by bradleyjg »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #78
bradleyjg wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> on any federal funds that might help Why do they have to be federal funds? Mississippi is a poor state within the US but if you look at global comparisons it has a robust tax base. There’s no reason it needs to depend on federal largesse for the basics. It just needs better governance.

> Why do they have to be federal funds? Federal/state/local tax revenue is split about 54/27/19. The US federal deficit is another 19% on-top of that. For whatever reasons, good or bad, the US funnels tax dollars through the Federal level. They're basically a middle man. Which means large projects almost always require some Federal funding.

27 + 19 is 46%, that’s hardly nothing. Again if you compare other countries a lot of places do a lot more with less. It’s governance issue, not a resource issue.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#135

Post by seanmcdirmid »

birken wrote: post #119
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but we also manage to burn down half the state every summer. That's an exaggeration, and the drought has been really bad for the last few years. > Today we're in the middle of a power shortage, to the extent that EV owners are asked not to charge their cars[*]. [*] Between 4 and 9PM.

People are voluntarily asked to reduce power consumption between 4 and 9pm on the hottest days of the year. We're out of power! California has a lot of problems, but the state government at the moment is actually operating quite effectively at trying to solve them. Including the issues with the electrical grid (for example our one nuclear plant getting emergency funding to stay online to help meet our environment goa…

They could easily handle this with some smart metering, so people could just dry their clothes or charge their EVs in the morning or at night.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#136

Post by coliveira »

hosh wrote: post #72
boeingUH60 wrote: post #45

Where I reside..what you’ll call a third-world country (Nigeria), everyone who builds a home digs their personal water borehole and sewage system because our government is too incompetent to maintain city-wide infrastructure. I’ve always thought it would be much better if we can get centralized systems for these things as they do in developed countries, but I’m pretty sure this is the type of thing we would see regul…

Having better local sources of water and treatment may turn out to he a better idea than centralized water treatment. Here in the US, water is pumped (often uphill) and purified to drinking water standards, only for 70% of residential water used for watering green lawns. Those lawns are usually grown in a way where soil microbes are killed off, water retention capability are reduced (so it needs more water), and the…

I would be very glad if grass lawns were made unlawful in the US. It is a terrible waste of time, money, and natural resources for something so useless. I don't have any idea why this silly concept became so common in this country.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#137

Post by trhway »

scifibestfi wrote: post #14

Does anyone else feel like all of our institutions are crumbling in real time? And to the degree they still work is a product of momentum?

Bureaucracy everywhere slows everything to a halt and pumps the costs of anything sky high. In developed West - through regulations and Kafkaesque process, in the rest of the world - through corruption. Pouring concrete and laying pipes is cheap and fast, it is everything else in the project that makes it costly and expensive.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#138

Post by coliveira »

sroussey wrote: post #132
hosh wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having better local sources of water and treatment may turn out to he a better idea than centralized water treatment. Here in the US, water is pumped (often uphill) and purified to drinking water standards, only for 70% of residential water used for watering green lawns. Those lawns are usually grown in a way where soil microbes are killed off, water retention capability are reduced (so it needs more water), and the…

In Irvine, California, homes are plumbed with two water lines: potable, and greywater. So even in the middle of a drought, everything is green.

More waste: now there is an extra water system to maintain and repair.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#139

Post by dehrmann »

Bud wrote: post #120
Mountain_Skies wrote: post #112

For those turning this into a race issue, the United States has a large number of black controlled cities who have no problem keeping their water systems running. This isn't about race, it's about the particular leaders in Jackson not making the water system a priority. Every other excuse made here applies to other towns who have no problems keeping their water running and clean. Maybe you should ask yourself why you…

"Turning this into" a race issue? It is a race issue. You're simply making things up about Jackson's leaders and hoping they will stick. Well, they don't stick. Jackson has repeatedly appealed for funding to address this issue and they have been repeatedly denied that funding by the state's Republican leaders. Maybe you should ask yourself why you're so lazy that you're unwilling to research the issue, and also so wi…

> Jackson has repeatedly appealed for funding to address this issue and they have been repeatedly denied that funding by the state's Republican leader

I'm not sure if cities in Mississippi normally get state funding to maintain municipal water systems, but regardless, if the state isn't providing funding, the next option is securing local funding.

Re: In Jackson, Mississippi, a water crisis of unparalleled scale

#140

Post by jasonlotito »

systemvoltage wrote: post #105
pkrotich wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess your idea of America is from movies - immigrated here 24 years ago from a so called third-world country and I can tell you it’s rather unsettling when you see the bowels of America especially in the southern parts (I live in Louisiana).

Honest question - why do we send so much foreign aid but don't fix our own backyard? This has been going on for decades and there must be an opportunity cost here. Sure some things cannot be solved by just throwing more money at it, but a lot of things can be. I remember this was a popular topic in pro Ron Paul 2008 reddit discussions. More people are eager to help Ukraine than our own states. They'd be ashamed infac…

Ukraine accepts aid.

States reject aid.

People are willing to help, but people have to be willing to be helped.

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