Mississippi water is so dirty residents shower with their mouths shut (opens in new tab)

"The south" is a big, diverse place. Some places definitely resemble the third world, west Virginia is a prominent example, although it's not part of the south proper. And cities like Memphis have some major problems that are commonly attributed to third world countries.

America by and large is a diverse place. There are parts of non southern states with third world tier problems. Both states you mention have problems of that caliber.

Most of the developed world resembles the third world once you leave the cities, some of it even in the cities. Its all just rural undeveloped land with thin little roads, most of which aren't in pristene condition.

The US does, Mississippi doesn’t. Mississippi has a GDP per capital of about $42,411 [0] while UK has $47,334 [1]. Those are both in current USD.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territ... [1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD?location...

To be fair the UK (or rather England) isn't exactly an examplar when it comes to water quality.

https://news.sky.com/story/huge-increase-in-raw-sewage-relea...

Does that suggest that wealth in Mississippi is extremely concentrated near the top?

The government in Mississippi collects Billions in tax revenue and wastes it... like every government.

You missed this announcement then:

“Please make sure in the shower that your mouth is not open,” Jim Craig, senior deputy and director of health protection at the Mississippi Department of Health...

Specifically for Jackson, where they have been having serious water problems for a month.

(This is not in the linked article, but in several others on the topic)

It's because of massive flooding and a damaged treatment plant. The governor declared a state of emergency. 150k people have been under orders to boil app water since July 29th.

I just heard about it yesterday too.

Having lived in Europe, this feels exactly like the kind of reporting they love. “Did you hear what happened in the US?” Or “did you see what happened in the US?” It’s a big damned place and I only personally care about certain parts of it, so no, I probably didn’t.

I used to expect better out of the BBC…

The OP implies that this is common to everyone in the state, and I believe it to be nonsense. I know about what's going on in Jackson, but I can assure you, the issues with the Pearl River flooding a treatment plant are limited to the city of Jackson.

Where I live, they shut off the water if you don't pay your bill.

Jackson isn't handling things very well. The governor is kind of a turd. There's blame to go all around.

https://mississippitoday.org/2022/09/02/bennie-thompson-jack...