Jackson water crisis was ‘foreseeable,’ residents say in lawsuit

A group of Jackson, Miss., residents is seeking class-action status for a lawsuit it filed this week accusing current and former city officials and contractors of neglecting Jackson’s water system for years, culminating in the crisis this summer that left more than 150,000 people without access to safe drinking water.

It is the first federal lawsuit seeking class-action status filed since severe floods caused Jackson’s already faltering main treatment plant to fail completely. Much of the predominantly Black city went days without water to drink, bathe or flush toilets. A boil-water notice was in effect for more than a month.