Originally published at: No drinking water "indefinitely" in Jackson, Mississippi | Boing Boing
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Color me surprised.
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USA!!! USA!!! 
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" Nearby flooding is hardly even a final straw; the problem is systematic and results from years of underinvestment."
At least they have low taxes and no government regulations! Another win for the GOP. 
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I’m sure it’s just a tragic coincidence that the two largest municipalities in America which proved unable to provide drinking water to their residents in recent years happen to have majority-Black populations.
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Oh me, oh my! How could we have ever know this would be a problem?!?!?
Previous warnings, ignored by state and federal government, beginning long before this crisis:
Feb, 2021:
March, 2021
August, 2021:
October, 2021:
August 1, 2022:
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Mmmm. . . boiling water when the temperature is around 90F and the humidity is around 70%. Good times.
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Too soon.
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How is this, in any way, funny?
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It’s not, but I guess that some people get their kicks laughing at the suffering of others and/or the persistence of structural racism.
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I think a comment on the idiocy of “American Exceptionalism.” And the exceptional arrogance and stupidity that usually goes with it. YMMV, of course.
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Fixing a water or sewer system before they fail is usually a political death sentence. The problem is, these critical infrastructure systems are invisible, and their benefits are invisible, until after they fail. Meanwhile, the cost of fixing a water or sewer system are large, and very visible.
It takes a special kind of crazy to fix these critical infrastructure systems before they fail. You have to be crazy enough to:
- Be willing to abandon your political career.
- Be willing to put up with being unpopular.
- Be able to sustain the effort, while people are complaining about increased taxes and blocked roads.
- Be willing to hand control of the city over to your political opponents.
- Be able to value all the lives you saved, even though nobody knows who they are, and they don’t like you.
- Value the invisible improvements, over popular, visible improvements.
On a possibly related note: When my dad was mayor of our small town, he upgraded/replaced the water system and put in the sewer system.
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What a sad excuse we have for a society, then.
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In my town we take sewer replacement as a fact of life. Our city managers and mayors have gotten no flack for keeping waste water treatment working and flood waters under control. I’m sorry for any municipal person who was harmed by doing so.
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He made the toilets flush on time! 
In some places, the pipes/sewage is scary old, and if it hasn’t even been inspected, never mind maintained, it’s an expensive ticking bomb, especially now with 100-year storms every decade or less.
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