The small town mayor and its citizens of Helena-West Helena are urging the governor of Arkansas to provide some type of assistance to help with their water crisis during these extreme summer temperatures.
The town located in east Central Arkansas has been without clean water for more than four weeks and under a boil water alert since the end of June. According to Mayor Christopher Franklin, the town’s infrastructure is over 60 years old and pipes have burst in various parts of the city. He is a native of Helena-West Helena and was elected mayor in January.
A main water line broke on June 25, and it caused the city’s computer operations that run the water plant to fail. It left the town without water for more than 20 hours with a high temperature of 97 on that day.
Helena-West Helena is about 70 miles from Memphis, and 75 percent of the 9,000 residents are Black.
The cautionary boil water alert was issued on June 30 as temperatures reached 100 degrees on June 30. The city had to keep the alert in place after the infrastructure still had leaks.
City officials told NBC News that the estimate to fix the infrastructure would cost anywhere between $1 million and $10 million. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued the town a $100,000 loan to help repair the primary water system.
Franklin and his staff said that is not nearly enough money. They also said that it did help get the water back on in the town, but the pressure is low, and more leaks are still developing throughout the water system.
In addition to reaching out to the governor for more aid, Franklin also reached out for federal assistance.
“In America, where people have the right to good, quality drinking water, the federal government should be running aid to provide that,” Franklin said to NBC News. “Instead, there’s no sense of urgency for us. I mean, why would it be? We’re Black. There’s no urgency until they want our vote. And that’s what’s happening here. What else are we left to think?”
The citizens are being forced to use bottled water for bathing, cooking and staying hydrated. Zenovia Martin-Smith has been a resident for 31 years and called the situation “ridiculous.”
“You see how you like it if you can’t cook with the water at your home, or take a shower in it, or drink it,” Martin-Smith said to NBC News. “And the worst part about it is because we’re Black, we can’t get excited about the problem being fixed any time soon. Shoot, it’s already been three weeks.”
Franklin also reached out to Arkansas’ two senators, Tom Cotton and John Boozman, for aid as well. Cotton sent an aide to the town two weeks ago, and Boozman is scheduled to send one sometime this week. Walmart, Arkansas National Guard, Dollar General and the Red Cross all have provided support for the town during their water crisis.
The mayor is worried that their situation could be a repeat of Flint’s water crisis triggered after unelected emergency managers switched the water supply from Lake Huron to the polluted Flint River to cut costs in the economically depressed city.
Between 2014 and 2015, the tap water of almost 100,000 residents was contaminated by bacteria. Among them, 12 people lost their lives due to Legionella bacteria, a type of pneumonia-causing bacteria, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
“It’s a lot,” Franklin said to NBC News. “But I’ve lived here all my life, and I’m committed to the people of this community getting the basic right they should have — clean water. I’m not arguing about a football game. I’m arguing about the quality of life for Black people and all the people in this inner city.”
