Marlene Turton-Ross said the residents of Park’s Road St. Joseph are tired of catching water in buckets and want answers about their taps, which have been dry for weeks.
RESIDENTS of Park’s Road St. Joseph are frustrated.
Yesterday they joined a familiar chorus of residents who have had to endure dry taps, however their situation is a little different.
Homeowner Marlene Turton-Ross says that unlike those residents who have been faced with sporadic water outages, Park’s Road has not had running water for the entire shut-down of the country as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She said it is affecting the quality of life of the residents, who constantly have to seek to fill buckets and barrels to go about their day-to-day lives.
“You have to depend on the water truck coming through to give you water. If the water truck came through you would cook with that water, but the water coming from the tank, don’t matter how they tell you they sanitise it, we still don't want to take that chance.”
She told The Barbados Advocate that water problems are not new in St. Joseph, however this time around, the water went off around the end of March. It came back on a few times during the first week in April and has not come back since.
“We have had enough...We are frustrated. People have been calling in on the radio programmes, talking about they haven’t had water for two days. This is a community that hasn’t had water in months.
Turton-Ross said the residents are calling for answers. “Let us know what is going on. Don’t just leave us in the dark.
"We heard the reservoir at Fort George Heights was low, we heard on the radio... But we haven’t heard from the BWA. We heard from some of the guys that drive the trucks that the reservoir is low. For the last couple of the months the reservoir was low. You mean it hasn’t caught any water at all?”
She said the situation is even more peculiar upon hearing Lammings residents, which she believes are serviced by the same reservoir, said they did not have water for four days. The resident said she is unwilling to pay the bill since she wasn’t receiving any service, but will gladly pay any arrears when water starts flowing in the community again.
She explained that the community tank is filled when the water truck visits the community, but it is not big enough to service the needs of the residents. “When the last administration was in power I remember when Ms. Haigh was the communications specialist, John Mwansa was the chairman. We had a conversation and I was able to bring him over here so the people in this village could talk to him so we were able to get that community tank there. We had a bigger tank before, we have a small one now, so everyone is using this water. Sometimes you will go and the people will go and fill it today. By evening the tank is done. You have to wait til they come back and fill it again.”
“Last Sunday my husband wasn’t home so I was the one that had to catch the water. While catching the water I hurt my back. I had to say this is enough. I really can’t deal with this,” she lamented. She said purchasing a tank would be a futile exercise since they still have to wait for the tank to be filled. “Sometimes the truck people just pass you and they say they are passing back. If the community tanks are out and you don’t have some water stored, you are out.”
Turton- Ross said residents would be grateful if the water would come on for just a few hours in the morning. “You know what is none at all?” she lamented.