JACKSON, MS (Mississippi News Now) -
The sales of bottled water continued to be brisk Sunday afternoon at this grocery store in the part of south Jackson affected by boil water alert.
Area residents dealing with low water pressure say it has been an inconvenience and costly.
"We had to boil our water and we didn't have water to cook with. We had to buy water to cook with because they say it was real contaminated and we were inconvenienced for three days. So it was kind of hard, but we worked through it. We had to buy a lot of water and nobody's going to give my money back for our water we had to buy," said south Jackson resident Rebecca Buggs.
"I been boiling water and trying to boil water to keep in the refrigerator, too, " added south Jackson resident Kanisha Williams.
The residents say boiling water for consumption and cooking is only part of the problem.
"We had to buy a lot of water because we had to put it down there to flush the toilet," said Buggs.
Contractors hired by city officials worked continuously for about 48 hours to replace 100 feet of the 42-inch pipe line. The concrete piping laid in the early 1990's was replaced by industrial iron pipe. City officials say apparently shifting soil is the culprit that caused a crack around the entire circumference of one section of pipe.
Officials say while the repair is complete, it will take several hours to flush and repressurize the system. They say south Jackson residents experiencing low water pressure will see a gradual increase of the pressure over the next few hours.
Officials say the cost of the repair is about $150,000.
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