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A Mississippi mom of 3 shares how water crisis is hurting her family

More than 180,000 people living in Jackson, Mississippi do not have access to clean water.

A crumbling infrastructure, neglected water system and severe flooding has left more than 180,000 people living in Jackson, Mississippi without access to safe drinking water.

One mom of three is sharing how the crisis is impacting her and her family.

Cassandra Welchlin, 49, a mom social worker, is a proud Mississippian who has lived in Jackson all of her life. She says she "knew the flood waters were coming," she told TODAY Parents, so she prepared her kids the same way her mother and grandmother prepared her for life without access to clean water.

"Fill the tubs up, so we can at least have flushable water," Welchlin told her children, ages 17, 14, and 11. "Go to the store and get as much water as we can just in case we can't use that water."

The mom says they haven't been able to use the water to cook with. "We have to boil it," she explained. "The water has been brown and there's grind in the water."

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba declared a water system emergency on Aug. 29 after flooding and infrastructure failures.

Welchlin says her main focus is making sure her children "are not using the water to brush their teeth." The family has put water bottles in every bathroom in the home. Even a small bit of faucet water can be dangerous, as they unfortunately found out.

"Yesterday morning, our 14-year-old daughter forgot. She was brushing her teeth and she drank some water out of the faucet and she ended up getting sick and had diarrhea," Welchlin said. "That was pretty infuriating, to me, to have my daughter go through that. Thank goodness she recovered."

The family has also been bathing in brown water, Welchlin said, and reminding each other not to get the water in their mouths when showering.

"My son, who is very curious, asked, 'Why? This is a lot to think about. This is a lot to plan,'" she added. "We said, 'We don't want you to get sick.'"

Life is still happening

In addition to trying to keep her family safe, Welchlin needs to help her children do virtual learning because of the water crisis.

Without water, schools can't open.

"When we got the call that schools would be virtual, my son almost had a panic attack," she explained. "He said, 'No, mom. I cannot do virtual learning. I don't do good on virtual learning. Please, please send me to school.' He was really having an emotional breakdown for this."

Then there was a death in the family, so Welchlin's mom could no longer provide support or child care.

"It's been a lot of finagling," she said. "One day, my husband had a meeting he couldn't miss. I was dealing with a family emergency and had to leave. So I asked my oldest daughter to sit amongst her siblings while she does school and they do school, just to watch them and make sure everyone is safe. We left her at home with them for three hours."

As her family continues to deal with the loss, Welchlin says she has had to bring her children to work with her and change schedules to split child care with her husband. Sometimes she checks them out of Zoom school so she can take them to a caregiver.

"Life is still happening in the midst of this water crisis in Jackson," she added. "It has definitely been a huge inconvenience, but it's also been really hard on the mental heath of our children."

'This has been going on for decades'

On August 30, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves issued a state of emergency, deploying the state's National Guard in an attempt to mitigate the crisis, which includes a lack of water to "reliably flush toilets, fight fire and meet other critical needs."

“The is a very different situation from a boil water notice — which is also a serious situation which the residents of Jackson have become tragically numb to,” Reeves, a Republican, said in a statement.

Welchlin remembers going without water after massive flooding in 2020 and a winter storm in 2021.

“I remember listening to my granny and my mother prepare when a winter storm is coming,” she explained. “We knew it would end with our water being turned off. This has been going on for decades, and we’re dealing with it again in 2022.”

In April, Mississippi received $429 million to fix water issues across the entire state as a result of President Joe Biden's sweeping Infrastructure Bill. Experts believe it will cost $1 billion to fix Jackson’s water system.

One 2020 report highlighted the town's water system issues, including failing to replace lead pipes, inefficient monitoring equipment and insufficient staff.

Welchlin said this sort of crisis hits moms the hardest.

“Moms are having to take off unexpected days off from work, so they’re losing wages. A lot of our businesses are closed. Child care centers are closed,” she explained. “This is a massive amount of money that our moms are losing and they’re having to spend it now on bottled water. This is a significant burden. Moms don’t have the money in their pockets or in their savings to weather this kind of water crisis.”

Mississippi has the highest poverty rate in the U.S. and had the lowest life expectancy rate in 2019. A reported 46% of families in Mississippi are led by single Black moms.

In Jackson, Mississippi, 82% of residents are Black and of that population, 25% live in poverty.

'Jackson residents have been the heroes'

In the midst of systemic failings, Welchlin says the community has "really pulled together."

"We really make sure that our community is taken care of," she explained. "We have formed a coalition and built an infrastructure to do what we know to do — take care of our families."

Welchlin says she's seen residents pull food out of their refrigerators and grill it up to feed people, particularly in low income communities where the "entire water system is shut off."

Welchlin, the executive director and co-convener of the Mississippi Black Women's Roundtable, a community organization advocating for Black women and girls, says her team has partnered with the Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition to provide water to senior citizens. Her organization is also working with laundry facilities to help people wash clothes.

"People are bringing showers down here. Local YMCA's are coming to our colleges and saying, 'Come, take showers," she said. "Jackson residents are the real heroes in this story, because we have been saving ourselves."

A need to mother not only her own children but her whole community is something Welchlin says she learned from her mother, grandmother and dearly departed aunt.

"My granny taught me what justice was, because she was a foster care mother who took in my mother and their five siblings," she explained. "She was the caregiver of the community. When people didn't have it, she gave it."

Welchlin's mother earned $2.13 hourly as a maid. Without access to child care, she would bring Welchlin to work with her and hide her in the utility closet. When she couldn't bring her daughter to work, Welchlin's mom would send her to work with her sister — Welchlin's now departed aunt.

"It's been very difficult. As I'm trying to take care of my children and my community, I'm also having to deal with this amazing woman in my life passing away," she explained. "So how am I dealing with my own self-care? I haven't gotten there yet."

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