For decades, residents of Jackson, Mississippi have lacked reliable access to safe, affordable drinking water, in part due to factors such as recurring infrastructure failures, systemically-racist state obstruction, numerous boil water notices, and corporate exploitation. Inadequate funding left the city’s aging water infrastructure without the public investments it needed to guarantee reliable water service.

This has now left the city susceptible to privatization attempts, which allow the private water industry to exploit cash-strapped communities for their profit-making schemes.

Communities across the country have seen that turning over control of water systems to privatizers can lead to higher water bills, labor cuts and abuses, and other cost-cutting measures that endanger public health as corporations prioritize profits for shareholders over the needs of the people.

To make matters worse, Mississippi state officials have repeatedly pushed anti-democratic attempts to take over control of the city’s water system and strip power from the people, even as the EPA actively investigates alleged discriminatory funding practices by the state to limit federal resources to Jackson.

We need your voice now as our partners meet with the EPA this week to ensure that the federal government is doing everything in its power to bring justice to Jackson and not push dangerous false solutions like privatization. Your support will show our partners that you, and thousands across the country, have their back as they head into this crucial meeting.

Join us in standing by our allies who are demanding the EPA uphold its oversight responsibilities, honor local control, and ensure that residents have reliable access to safe, affordable public drinking water!