"Everything went wrong": After water crisis, Mississippi official looks back critically at Jackson's deal with global titan Siemens

When the water stopped flowing from faucets in Jackson, Mississippi, after flooding this summer, officials from across government struggled to explain an infrastructure failure that was so sweeping in scale. 

But to De'Keither Stamps, a Mississippi state lawmaker and former Jackson city council member, there was one notable event that contributed to the city's water woes— a $90 million deal that was supposed to avert this outcome.

Stamps was talking about a contract the city signed a decade ago with the international company Siemens that was supposed to upgrade its water infrastructure, improve its finances, and set Jackson's municipal water system on a path to sustainability. By upgrading and modernizing, Siemens told city officials, they could replace an antiquated billing and metering system and generate funds for Jackson to modernize its water system.