Residents of Ferriday should quickly raise a public protest seeking a rapid solution to the town’s decades-old water problem.

Currently, the town’s water supply is under a boil-water notice required by the state health department. Small military water tanks supplied by the Louisiana National Guard dot the town’s landscape.

The image of the military water tanks is very much that of a third-world country, not a town in 21st century America.

The latest boil-water notice has been going since the middle of May with no immediate end in sight.

In 1999, a similar boil-water mandate lasted 124 agonizing days. In addition to creating a nuisance for the residents and businesses of Ferriday, the 1999 incident also ended with a class-action lawsuit settlement of approximately $2.5 million.

This year, town leaders have been scrambling to find federal and state funds along with trying to come up with a good, long-term plan for the system.

While we’re generally not fans of hiring consultants to help resolve problems with obvious solutions, the current situation in Ferriday is obviously one needs some expert, third-party advice.

The people of Ferriday deserve a good, clean water supply. But what they’ve had is a patchwork system over the years that breaks, gets patched back together for a time and then falls apart again.

We’re well beyond the finger pointing stage at this point. Ferriday needs help and they need a plan that’s not a Band-Aid solution, but a real repair or replacement that isn’t a “maybe” plan, but an “absolute” one.