Abstract
Abstract
Failures in urban water systems are becoming a common occurrence in the US due to disasters, aging infrastructure, and financial constraints, among other concerns. For example, Jackson, Mississippi has experienced reoccurring water outages, burdening community members as they must seek alternative water sources. Prior research has primarily focused on technical, institutional, and public health aspects of water crises, with limited attention to community perspectives. Understanding such social aspects can shed light on, for example, community priorities, levels of trust, mental health concerns, and communication gaps. Here, we document the temporal experiences and perceptions of community members during the Jackson Water Crises. To do so, we qualitatively analyzed news media data and employed topic modeling techniques on social media data from two years, capturing two service disruption events. Our results reveal the cascading impacts of water outages on end-users, including financial, social, and technical issues. For example, over time, results indicate that trust in the government and water providers in Jackson eroded, which may hinder public support. Our results show that social media can be a useful tool for utilities to understand public perceptions in real-time. Recommendations proposed here can inform future responses to water crises in Jackson and other communities, ensuring end-users’ perspectives are incorporated.
Funder
Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Subject
General Engineering,Energy Engineering and Power Technology
Reference95 articles.
1. My water pressure has been low since Friday and they didn’t say anything about a boil water notice until Saturday and so many friends told me they still don’t have water or their pressure is low as well…. I’m getting tf out of Jackson first chance I get [Post];@BlackRo77313875,2022
2. CNN tonight: all of Jackson, Mississippi left without clean drinking water;@Blackwell,2022
3. “How can a state justify spending $70 million in welfare money on rich people’s agendas when hard-working folks in Jackson can’t even get water to brush their teeth? It’s hard to believe state officials care about the Black folks in Jackson.” #msleg [Post];@BoiJuanda,2022
4. What happened to The America that I grew up in? No water in #Jackson #Mississippi? Dirty water in Flint? Vegas is running out of water. An insurrection at the capitol and ex-president stealing secrets! #Water #flint #Vegas #blm #Military #Afghanistan #Jan. [Post];@Dantethecomic,2022
5. Reminder: Jackson, MS doesn’t have clean water because the state refused to spend money on repairing the infrastructure [Post];@lenubienne,2022