Following a water crisis that left the city without clean drinking water for more than a month, one lady in Jackson, Mississippi claims she received a $4,000 water bill in September.
CNN reports that Virginia Evans received the bill on September 9 despite the water issue that has prevented her and other residents from drinking or cooking with tap water.
Evans told CNN, “I don’t know what they need to do, but they need to do something, because no one should be paying this amount when they can’t even use the water.”
Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi announced a state of emergency on August 30 after Jackson’s primary water treatment facility began to collapse, leaving the city without sufficient water pressure for flushing toilets and meeting other essential demands. From July 29 until September 15, the city was under a boil water advisory.
As a result of the situation, a significant number of Jackson residents have complained about their excessive water costs. NBC reports that in 2010, when Siemens Corporation installed new water meters and a new billing system, some municipal residents began experiencing difficulties with their water bills.
According to NBC, Jackson filed a lawsuit against Siemens in 2019, alleging that 10,000 of the 60,000 newly installed water meters were malfunctioning. Siemens settled the claim for $90 million outside of court.
On Saturday, neither Siemens nor Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba responded to Insider’s requests for comment.
Jackson began installing new water meters in 2021, and a representative for the city told CNN that the new meters “read accurately based on our evaluation to date.”
Melissa Payne, a company spokesperson, stated in a statement, “There are still some software-related issues causing problems for some residents with new meters.” These problems have been discovered, and efforts are underway to address them.
WJTV reports that during a community meeting on October 6, city councilman Kenneth Stokes encouraged customers with excessively high water bills and those who have gotten shutoff notices to appeal their bills. During the discussion, Stokes highlighted that their water supplies cannot be disconnected while they are appealing their bill.
Mississippi Animal Rescue in Jackson did not receive a water bill from 2017 through 2021, according to Debra Boswell, director of communication. WJTV reported that the first bill the animal shelter received in 2021 was approximately $19,000.
“We phoned and requested documentation of the bills that led to the $19,000 amount, but we received nothing,” Boswell told WJTV. “Thus, I failed to pay the bill. I didn’t pay it.”