Chicago area volunteers collecting water donations for Jackson, Mississippi, at 3 Jewel stores
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Some South Side residents are helping people in need hundreds of miles away. Monday is the final day of the "Help Jackson Now" water drive.
Chicago volunteers have set up donation sites outside three Jewel stores on the South Side.
Their plan is to fill three large trailers with bottled water. They'll then drive 700 miles to donate that water to people in Jackson, Mississippi. The trucks are set to depart at 7:30 p.m. on Monday.
The young men from the Chicago area who helped organize the water drive are students at Jackson State University.
In Jackson, 150,000 residents are being told to use bottled water.
Jackson has had longstanding problems with its water system. A cold snap in 2021 left a significant number of people without running water after pipes froze. Similar problems happened again early this year, on a smaller scale. The city has been under a boil-water notice since late July because tests found a cloudy quality to the water that could lead to health problems.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves last week declared a state of emergency for Jackson's water system. The state will try to help resolve problems by hiring contractors to work at the treatment plant, which was operating at diminished capacity with backup pumps after the main pumps failed "some time ago," Reeves said.