MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Residents in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas continue to be left out to fend for themselves after being asked by city officials to conserve water for the next 10 days.
Water issues have been piling up since last year. First, it was a computer system failure that left people without water during the summer of 2023, then there was a boil water order during January 2024 due to problems with the water system's infrastructure.
On Wednesday, new issues continued to rise with residents who are upset about a spike in water rates. Helena-West Helena mayor, Christopher Frankline said the heavy consumption exposed more problems in their main tank. He said their 4,000 customers are being asked to conserve water in order to make emergency repairs.
According to Franklin, he told ABC24 their town would need $100 million to replace their entire water system.
"For the past 50 years or better, we've been having these issues. I don't care whose sitting in this chair or whoever would've been sitting in this chair besides me, would've faced these problems that we have now," Franklin said.
Franklin said while the Helena said of town's water supply is doing fine at the moment, despite being on the same system as West Helena, some residents such as Frederick Owens said they are not happy about conserving water.
"Yesterday I had to transport water to my house to take a bath and wash dishes and stuff. It was just not so good," Owens said.
Cameron Block, a long-time resident of West Helena, and father says the water crisis is impacting their day-to-day lives.
"You got to sit around and smell urine and feces all day just because the water is not on and running properly, so they need to do something, and they need to hurry up and do it," Block said.
Residents are familiar with the town's water issues. In January, damage to the Helena-West Helena's infrastructure left people without water for more than 10 days.
Franklin said at this time, the most pressing issue is figuring out how much the city's water rate will rise on their water bill.
"The first rate they chose was to gain a lot more revenue so that we can get the water department to be more solvent, once the customers start to have a complaint about it they drew it back," Franklin said.
The city's original water rate increase, which was set less than three weeks ago was set at $2.82 extra per 1,000 gallons of water used. Helena-West Helena city council on Tuesday voted to move the new water rate set at $4.76 per 1,000 gallons of water used back to its original rate.
Franklin told ABC24 they need the extra revenue to qualify for an 11 million dollar loan. He said those funds will help fix problems such as the two water main breaks, and other long-term issues with their distribution system.
Franklin said some customers believe leaks are a cause of why customers water bills have been high in the last month.
"Leaks are a lot of main causes for it, normally people don't know that they have leaks. Like a lady said, my bill went up, but she said oh the toilet in the back of the house is still running, that's a leak," Franklin said. "Once you get that fixed, once it goes through the meter, we have to charge you for it."
Franklin told ABC24 if any customer has a high water bill it's most likely due to a leak. He said customers should call the city municipal building and asked that the water department get the issue resolved. Franklin said they are hoping to finalize a new water rate by November 1.