Mississippi's water crisis poses severe risk to dialysis patients: "It could literally kill 'em"
Residents of Jackson, Mississippi, are facing the fifth day of a humanitarian water crisis that's impacting nearly 200,000 people. But for some — including the thousands of residents on dialysis — clean water is the difference between life and death.
One of those people is Arlester Johnson. His kidneys are failing — so three times a week, he spends hours hooked up to a dialysis machine that relies heavily on clean water.
"I thank this place for having these machines so I can live," Johnson told CBS News.
He's one of more than 8,000 Mississippi residents who are using the life-saving treatment. Dialysis providers like Fresenius Medical Care are hauling in tanker trucks filled with 6,200 gallons of water to guarantee a stable supply during the crisis. However, a tanker only lasts one day.
When asked what dirty water would do to someone on dialysis, TJ Mayfield, executive director of the state's kidney foundation, said, "I hate to say it, it could literally kill 'em."
When asked how a city that's 82% African American, with a majority Black leadership, has allowed the failures at the city's water treatment facility to persist for this long, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said, "Even though I am a Black mayor, I am still a mayor without the resources to fix it under my own capacity."
Arlester Johnson, who is a double amputee, said more needs to be done.
"It makes you mad, to know we've gotta go through what we're going through," he said. "We shouldn't have to go through this."
