Jackson’s water crisis

JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi federal court approved a 12% water bill hike in Jackson, Mississippi, a “survival measure” for a city whose water and sewage pipes and treatment plants are stressed to emergency levels and have reached the end of $150 million in federal subsidies. The 12% rate increase will bring in $20.4 million in annual revenue for the court-appointed interim third-party manager of the water system, who “must aggressively pursue needed structural reforms to prevent further financial strain on the rate-paying public.”