Approximately 180,000 people in Mississippi have been left without access to clean drinkable water after heavy rainfall and flooding.
Rising floodwaters over the weekend breached the city’s main water treatment facility, bringing it to the brink of collapse.
A state of emergency has been declared, and schools, restaurants and businesses have temporarily closed.
The city had already been under a boil-water notice for a month.
Problems at the OB Curtis Water Plant began after heavy rains caused the Pearl River to crest and spill over onto city streets over the weekend.
City hall confirmed on Monday that river water had entered the facility, which treats more than 50 million US gallons (190 million litres) per day.
Both the city and state are distributing bottled drinking water to residents as well as non-potable water for toilets via tanker truck, with Mississippi’s National Guard assisting relief efforts.
On Tuesday afternoon Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the ‘very fragile’ city-run plant would not turn off its water supply but officials needed time to treat the water.
He blamed the system’s failure on staffing shortages and ‘a set of accumulated problems based on deferred maintenance that has not taken place over decades’.
‘It was not a matter of if our system would fail, but a matter of when,’ he said.
The White House said it was “closely monitoring” the crisis and has been ‘in regular contact’ with Mr Lumumba.
Governor Tate Reeves said during an emergency briefing Monday night that the city would be without ‘reliable running water at scale’ indefinitely as the plant’s main motors and the backup pumps too had failed.
‘It means the city cannot produce enough water to fight fires, to reliably flush toilets, and to meet other critical needs,’ said Mr Reeves.
Local media reports that Governor Reeves, a Republican, and Mayor Lumumba, a Democrat, are at odds over the response.
