Jackson resident: Rate increase is so far the only proposed solution to city’s water, sewage woes

Editor’s note: This essay is part of Mississippi Today Ideas, a platform for thoughtful Mississippians to share fact-based ideas about our state’s past, present and future. You can read more about the section here.

I grew up in Calcutta, now Kolkata, a large city in India. Then, there were parts of Kolkata that smelled of raw sewage. When I came to the United States, I thought I had left that odor behind. And so I had — until I moved with my family to Jackson.

During the first 20-odd years we lived in Jackson, there was always somewhere in my neighborhood I could smell sewage. This indicated there was a leak, even though I couldn’t see it.

Sewage leaks are a health hazard. Contamination of drinking water with sewage can lead to a number of diseases. Further, the kind of mosquitoes that