The water in a US city is so unsafe that residents have been told to keep their mouth closed when they take a shower.
Jackson, Mississippi, which is home to over 150,000 people, is suffering from a serious crisis that has left residents without access to safe and clean water.
The crisis erupted on Monday (29 August) when a water treatment plant which had long been experiencing problems failed due to flooding from the Pearl River.
Since the plant's failure some people have found that there's no water coming out of their taps, nor any to shower or flush their toilet, others who can still get running water have found it cloudy or brown and unsafe to drink.
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A state of emergency was declared on Tuesday (30 August) by Mississippi governor Tate Reeves and emergency centres have been set up to hand out supplies of bottled water to residents.
City residents have already been living under instructions to boil all of their water before use since July after people noticed that the water coming out of their taps was cloudy.
Since the water's not clean enough to drink people are being told they must keep their mouth closed when they shower to avoid ingesting any of the dirty water by accident.
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City officials have told people they can still 'wash hands and bathe as usual' but they can only do so 'as long as no water is swallowed'.
That advice only goes for Jackson residents who can actually have showers right now, as in some places the water pressure is so low that taking a shower isn't possible.
US president Joe Biden approved emergency measures to help with the situation, providing money and support to fix the problem and attempt to get running water working again.
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Jackson mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the city's water system had suffered from 'decades of deferred maintenance' with old infrastructure in dire need of repair.
This is not the first time the city has had serious problems with the safety of its drinking water as Jackson residents spent much of 2021 living under instructions to boil their water before use.
In addition to being told to boil water before use and shower with their mouth closed, Jackson residents have also been advised to brush their teeth with bottled water.
Efforts to get the water plant working at a high enough level to restore people's water are underway, with the city confirming yesterday that they'd managed to get the water pressure back up to 78psi.
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Working their way back up from the 40psi they dropped down to earlier this week, their current goal is to reach 87psi.
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Joe Harker