Jackson’s ongoing water issues force some Byram residents to go without it for three days

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The city of Jackson’s water issues continue causing problems for those in neighboring cities.

Some Byram residents went three days without water.

“Since Friday morning, I haven’t been able to use my shower or flush my toilet,” Byram resident Ryan Johnson said. “To compensate for that, I’ve had to get water out of the pool to flush my toilets.”

Byram Mayor Richard White said a six-inch pipe blew out on Gary Road Thursday, which kept a couple of schools from meeting in-person Friday.

Not long after crews with the city of Jackson made repairs there, a 12-inch pipe burst on Terry Road Sunday morning.

Mayor White said both incidents had nothing to do with last week’s flooding but rather the Capital City’s aging infrastructure.

“I have people at my church and people all over that say, ‘I’d rather pay extra for us to have our own water,” White said. “I think the infrastructure is so old that it has caused a lot of problems, and it’s just going to continue to cause problems.”

Johnson’s apartment complex, The Reserve of Byram, is just one of three complexes impacted. Not to mention parts of the Magnolia Bluff neighborhood as well as several businesses. Some of those businesses were seen Sunday with porta-potties outside for customers and employees.

The water outages come exactly a month after the state imposed a boil water notice on people like Johnson who rely on the city of Jackson’s water system.

“On top of the extra expenses incurred from the boil water notice, we’re having to spend extra money for things like flushing the toilet and using it to bathe,” Johnson said.

Byram’s mayor said the city is about two years away from having its own water system, and it’s issues like these that reaffirm for him that it needs to happen.

As of Sunday night, Mayor White said pressure was restored for those in the Magnolia Bluff neighborhood and was on the rise for everyone else impacted by today’s main break.

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