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Mississippi water is so dirty residents shower with their mouths shut

bbc.com

39 points by al_mandi 3 years ago · 32 comments

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rasz 3 years ago

The special cherry on top was the news there is a tanker full of fresh water parked in front of governors mansion. Dont worry about it, its not for the governor, its totally "on standby to assist the bank with water needs".

https://www.mississippifreepress.org/26900/fact-check-tanker...

xenospn 3 years ago

The American south would be in 3rd world territory (in some regards it already is) if it wasn’t attached at the hip to california and new york.

  • betwixthewires 3 years ago

    "The south" is a big, diverse place. Some places definitely resemble the third world, west Virginia is a prominent example, although it's not part of the south proper. And cities like Memphis have some major problems that are commonly attributed to third world countries.

    America by and large is a diverse place. There are parts of non southern states with third world tier problems. Both states you mention have problems of that caliber.

    Most of the developed world resembles the third world once you leave the cities, some of it even in the cities. Its all just rural undeveloped land with thin little roads, most of which aren't in pristene condition.

    • xenospn 3 years ago

      I have been to 60 countries all over the world. You are factually incorrect. Exactly what part of japan, Norway or Australia resembles the third world?

      • betwixthewires 3 years ago

        I don't mean shitting in the streets. I mean that if you go to a town of 20 people, you're going to get one lane streets, potholes, people winning mayoral elections because their family voted, more pigs than people, lack of water treatment, etc. There are people in the far north of Norway that herd reindeer, live semi nomadically in yurts. This is not significantly different from how khazakh people live. Once you get rural, the distinction between first and third world becomes much much less evident.

    • sophacles 3 years ago

      Oh well that means a broken water system is a good look for the capital of a state!

bojangleslover 3 years ago

And yet it's GDP per Capita is higher than that of the UK

Graziano_M 3 years ago

I don’t know about you but I don’t normally shower with my mouth open…

57FkMytWjyFu 3 years ago

That's strange, I've lived here for 5+ years now, and I've never heard anyone my native spouse say anything of the sort, nor anyone else.

More outrage for the outrage throne!

  • sophacles 3 years ago

    You missed this announcement then:

    “Please make sure in the shower that your mouth is not open,” Jim Craig, senior deputy and director of health protection at the Mississippi Department of Health...

    Specifically for Jackson, where they have been having serious water problems for a month.

    (This is not in the linked article, but in several others on the topic)

    • 57FkMytWjyFu 3 years ago

      No, I did not miss that. If it's not in the linked article, the implication is that we all just know to shower with our mouth closed. 2.9 million people, vs 149k.

      It's hyperbole, without the details.

      • sophacles 3 years ago

        By "miss" I wasn't implying you can't read or something, just that this national news item wasn't something you've seen yet. A common way to express that is "you missed it" or "i missed that".

        Let me rephrase my first sentence:

        You many not have seen this yet then...

        [snip some unnecessarily stuff in light of edit below].

        edit: I just realized and maybe you also hadn't seen yet, the linked article is a summary of a video story. Additionally, the summary has been updated to include more information specifying Jackson and the title has been updated since I first looked, I suspect there is much more info now than when you first looked..

      • MomoXenosaga 3 years ago

        If even a small village in my country didn't have access to clean drinking water for more than a week I'd demand some unfortunate public official to commit seppuku. It's having standards.

  • lamroger 3 years ago

    It's because of massive flooding and a damaged treatment plant. The governor declared a state of emergency. 150k people have been under orders to boil app water since July 29th.

    I just heard about it yesterday too.

  • chrismeller 3 years ago

    Having lived in Europe, this feels exactly like the kind of reporting they love. “Did you hear what happened in the US?” Or “did you see what happened in the US?” It’s a big damned place and I only personally care about certain parts of it, so no, I probably didn’t.

    I used to expect better out of the BBC…

  • 57FkMytWjyFu 3 years ago

    The OP implies that this is common to everyone in the state, and I believe it to be nonsense. I know about what's going on in Jackson, but I can assure you, the issues with the Pearl River flooding a treatment plant are limited to the city of Jackson.

    Where I live, they shut off the water if you don't pay your bill.

    Jackson isn't handling things very well. The governor is kind of a turd. There's blame to go all around.

    https://mississippitoday.org/2022/09/02/bennie-thompson-jack...

    • orionion 3 years ago

      >The governor is kind of a turd.

      So were the streets of San Francisco the last time I was there. Has gov Nonsense fixed that sanitary problem yet?

      The supply chain problem is a time bomb for many water supplies across the country. Even basic maintenance / upgrades have major problems with getting parts. So don't just point fingers at the "hicks" and think your water supply is safe or will stay that way.

      • 57FkMytWjyFu 3 years ago

        You, like everyone else, seem to have missed that I live in Mississippi.

        I'm the only one in the comments that has said so.

        I'm pretty sure me and all my neighbors are 'hicks'.

        Certainly more so than the good people of Jackson.

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