When my siblings and I were young, our parents would always tell us about a town called Ferriday, across the bridge.

They would reminisce of their teenage days of how they would go to Ferriday where it was popping. There were businesses, a hotel and one popular spot for dancing and listening to some good ole music. I’m not sure why they had to leave Natchez to do this, but evidently, Ferriday was the place to be. Living in Ferriday for less than 10 years and working there for more than 20-something years, I’m not sure what happened to this once popping productive town.

I have heard it said time and time again from many citizens, outsiders and even higher officials that Ferriday is a poor town. Ferriday is not a poor town.

I must agree that money is leaving Ferriday every day, but it is not a poor town. The people of Ferriday have to go elsewhere to spend our hard earned money because the town does not have the necessary businesses to supply our needs, wants, recreation and even social desires. Again, Ferriday is not a poor town.

Ferriday is a town that is located in a good position on the map. Every day there is all kind of highway traffic activity passing through. Ferriday should be rich with the ongoing traffic of truckers and others who come from areas as far as California and as near as Mississippi.

All I see is Ferriday being used as a crossing point or intersection for others to get to where they need to be. Why stop in Ferriday? What does Ferriday have to offer? There is no variety of food businesses or services, no variety of accommodations, nor is there a truck stop? In reality, it’s hard for truckers to make a good left or right turn to exit. There is not even a place for a trucker to pull up to get necessities or even gas.

There should be companies and business standing in line to locate here. But they are not. I always have wondered why. And it dawned on me one day, for more than 20-plus years of being associated with Ferriday, I’ve noticed that there is no good life here, as it once was.

And when I say life I’m referring to the source of all living things and that is water.

What is missing is fresh, clean water that is worth drinking, cooking and bathing in.

Who would want to relocate to a place where water, that plays a significant part in everyday living, is missing?

How can businesses relocate and survive, especially food service, without water worth using. The more I think about it, it has to be because of the water.

When did it all go wrong? When did the water system start showing signs of failure? For years the same questions have arisen, why hasn’t the water system been fixed?

For more than 20 years, to my knowledge, and countless administrations, some repeats, I can’t and have not been able to figure out why the water system has not been fixed.

The same plant seems to have been funded over and over again throughout the years with grants and other means of finances and the problem still exist to this day. Is it the water or the plant? No, it’s neither. They are only the materialistic aspect of the problem.

People make problems and people, with some guidance, should be the ones to fix problems. There has got to be a solution because one thing is for sure, water is a necessity of life.

From the Bible, water represents life or of a living matter. Water is the beginning of life. So it appears that the life of Ferriday is being drained every day and until the water problem is fixed, there will be no life in Ferriday.

Beverly Gibson is a Ferriday resident.