Around 8 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 3, the city of Cape Girardeau released an emergency alert about a water main break which affected a majority of Cape Girardeau’s residents including SEMO’s main campus and River Campus. Residence halls are some of the main areas on campus affected by the water outage and are experiencing low water pressure.

The water main break called for a boil water advisory and temporarily cutting off water coming from the city’s water plant, which means all water should be conserved and if being used for consumption should be boiled before use because it may contain germs. Residents should not drink, brush their teeth, cook or wash produce using tap water without boiling it first.

In a SEMO news release, residents were encouraged to leave campus and return home “to reduce the demand on the limited water capacity on campus.” For the students who are not able to leave there are precautions being taken across campus in order to keep everyone safe. On-campus residence halls have secured portable toilets, and supplied water bottles and hand sanitizer for residents who are still on campus. Dining services are limited but still available to residents.

Since water pressure is very low, residents are asked to conserve water whenever possible, which means showers and toilets will not be in use.

“I think the biggest thing is for everyone to stay calm — to reserve the water. And that’s what I've been telling my residents to do,” Towers RA Sydney Henderson said. “And then really just to focus on the safety of the water and make sure they’re consuming things that are good for their body.”

The water shortage has put into perspective the privilege that many people experience but don’t usually think about.

“It made me realize that I’ve always had the privilege of clean water. There was never a time when I was growing up that we had [a water main break],” Psychology junior Holly Roehrborn said.

Students are also concerned about how the campus will function moving forward through the rest of the week.

“One concern I do have is that since campus is already shut down tomorrow [Wednesday], is this going to be a problem for the next couple days or maybe the rest of this week?” Physical education junior Eric Schreder said. “Because from what I’ve heard, I thought it would be fixed today.”

As of Oct 4, the water line has been fixed and the water plant is running again. While the advisory is still in effect for the rest of the week, the following days will be spent introducing “partially treated” water into the system. Classes are canceled for Wednesday, Oct. 5, but as of now are still scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 6.