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Utility Outages Leave a Mississippi Homeowner Without Running Water for Days

By: Author Lauren Wellbank

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Utility Outages Leave a Mississippi Homeowner Without Running Water for Days

A Byram, Mississippi, resident is frustrated over an ongoing issue with his water utility. According to James Johnson, his JXN Water access has been experiencing a lot of disruptions lately, leaving him without access to clean running water. This has been especially frustrating for the homeowner, since he says he’s never missed a bill since moving to his South Dogwood Lane home.

Johnson told WLBT 3 about what has been going on, explaining how disruptive the frequent shutoffs have been for him, saying how hard it is to even do basic things like use the restroom while the water is turned off.

And Johnson isn’t alone either; apparently other people have been having issues with JXN Water lately, and the company says it has found a solution. But that’s not enough for the homeowner, who thinks the water authority owes residents in the area a higher standard of service. 

But it doesn’t sound like the utility company plans to do more than it already has, since it seems like they consider the issue resolved. That leaves Johnson in a predicament since he doesn’t know when his water will unexpectedly go off again, or if the situation has truly been fixed. 

The Homeowner Says The Most Recent Shutoff Lasted an Entire Day


The straw that broke the camel’s back appears to have taken place this week, when Johnson said his water was shut off without warning. The outage lasted an entire day, forcing Johnson to forgo the most basic tasks while he waited for the water to come back on. 

“Just even trying to wash your hands or get some water or even use the bathroom, couldn’t even take a bath because the water was off, especially the last time,” he told WLBT 3. “The water came back this time in enough time for us to get ready for the next day, but the last time we couldn’t even take a bath for a couple of days.”

As for that last time, Johnson told the outlet that the water was out for an even longer stretch when the utility company claimed he didn’t have an account with them.

“Last month they cut us off the same way, saying we didn’t have an account to pay our bills and, of course, we have to have an account because we pay our bills,” Johnson recalled. “No one came out until about three days later.”

Left with no other options, Johnson called the utility’s help desk, which is when he was informed that he wasn’t the only one who had been left without working water due to a system issue.

The Water Company Says It Fixed the Error

When contacted for a statement, the water company told the outlet that there had been an issue on-site that was preventing the meters from communicating with the company, prompting several issues. “We identified it, we fixed it, and we apologize for the inconvenience this caused.”
 
The response from the water company also said that it was working to ensure that the call center is better equipped to handle customer calls for service reinstatement. 

People Have Their Water Shutoff Across the Country

Unfortunately, water shutoffs are pretty common in the U.S., both for accidental reasons like Johnson’s, but also due to non-payment. While there’s no exact data on how many homes have their water access restricted each year, a 2016 assessment from the Food & Water Watch found that the water utilities that participated in an MIT study admitted to disconnecting an average of 5 percent of houses each year. 
 
“Among responding utilities, more than half a million households lost water service for nonpayment, affecting an estimated 1.4 million people in 2016,” the study found. Beyond that, the study reported that an estimated 15 million people in the U.S. had their water disconnected at some point in 2016.
 
When you think of how disruptive Johnson said these shutoffs are, it’s easy to imagine how frustrating life must’ve been for everyone involved in these water disruptions. 

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