The drinking water system in Jackson, Mississippi, failed its 150,000 residents this week after severe floods overwhelmed the city's outdated facilities. Thousands of residents have no clean drinking water and little to no water pressure, meaning they cannot even flush their toilets.

But this current crisis has been decades in the making due to disinvestment and neglect. Many residents already lived under a “boil notice,” meaning their water wasn't safe to use without first boiling out contaminants, or even didn’t use their tap water at all, due to lead contamination.

We speak with Mississippi Public Broadcasting reporter Kobee Vance and Aisha Nyandoro, CEO of Springboard to Opportunities, to understand how the city got here and what must be done.