A pipe that broke since Thursday morning due to a truck that was parked on the parapet in front of the St. Thomas More Men’s Homestead on Lamaha Street, Kitty has left the occupants of the building without running water.
According to a 69-year-old occupant of the building, who preferred to remain anonymous, despite the fact that complaints were made to Guyana Water Inc (GWI) by a representative of the men’s home on Thursday and Friday to have repairs done to the pipe, no one from the company showed up to do any repairs up to yesterday evening. As far as the occupant is concerned, it is unacceptable for the utility to allow water to waste in such a manner and not treat it as an emergency. As it stands, the occupants have used up all their water supplies and have none left to carry out their day-to-day activities.
At around 6:30 am on Thursday, it was observed that the water pressure was quite low and that the yard was flooded. It was later ascertained that a truck parked on the parapet outside the building, broke the pipe that supplied water to the building. The water from the broken pipe resulted in the yard being flooded.
A representative of the men’s homestead reported the matter to GWI on Thursday and was told that someone would turn up but they did not say exactly when. No one showed up on Thursday and whatever water the occupants had in the water tanks was eventually used up. About 20 men reside in the homestead.
On Friday morning, another call was made to GWI and the customer service representative informed her that GWI was trying to get someone or a crew to come before the end of day. At about 3 pm the same day, another call was made to GWI and basically the same response was given. The Homestead representative said he tried calling yesterday morning but this time no one answered the phone and GWI’s automated system prompted him to hold the line which he did with no result. Another unsuccessful call was made at 11 am yesterday.
At 3 pm yesterday, the resident said that he made another call to GWI and was informed by its representative that she would talk to the engineer and ask him if he can send a crew over before the afternoon ended. Up to last evening no one from GWI showed up, he said.
The occupant of the home expressed his frustration as the residents of the home do not have any water for their daily activities.
“I had to use my drinking water yesterday morning to brush my teeth. The occupants do not have any water. No water for the bathroom to bathe and the toilets are not flushing. Where water is concerned, we were depending on the drinking water we had left, but now we have no water left in our water tanks. It was used up”, he said.
He stressed that they do not want trouble with GWI but, “It is unacceptable for a utility company knowing that the damage was done. The water is still gushing out of the broken pipe. I can’t understand how GWI allows water to waste so much, from Thursday to Saturday and GWI is talking about water conservation and so on. Today is already Saturday and the water is stilling gushing out of the pipe. This is unacceptable… GWI allows water to go to waste like this, GWI is not addressing the emergency because we don’t have any water left…”
He noted that he even contacted the Fire Service to see if they could bring a few tanks of water for the occupants as it seemed that GWI will probably address the problem until tomorrow or Tuesday.
When Stabroek News visited the homestead around 2:47 pm on Saturday, a section of the parapet was soaked and water continued to flow out of the broken pipe. Stabroek News was unable to contact GWI yesterday.
