San Fernando HDC residents want water

SOME residents of the Housing Development Corporation's (HDC) Olera Heights apartments in San Fernando are complaining of being without water for weeks.

They made their complaints to the media on Monday.

Resident Shelly Ann Samuel-Saunders said it has been three weeks since she and her husband have had water. They live on the 7th floor of one of the apartment buildings at Olera Heights.

"My husband every evening would bring six Jalitre bottles of water from his workplace for me. So in the morning, I will just wash the precious parts of my body, and the rest of my body, I would use moist wipes."

Samuel-Saunders and her husband eat their meals from disposable plates and cutlery because they have no water to wash their wares.

She said, "I have not done laundry for two weeks."

This is not the first time some residents of Olera Heights have been without water for long periods, she said.

"The watering system here is inefficient to send water to the entire compound."

She said some residents have complained to the HDC about the situation, but this was "yielding nothing, because HDC is blaming WASA (Water and Sewerage Authority)."

Samuel-Saunders said WASA is doing its part to send water to Olera Heights.

"I spoke to somebody in WASA personally and the person said to me that Olera Heights is on a water schedule every day. Sunday to Sunday, 5 am-9 am."

But other residences and businesses nearby get a regular daily water supply, she said..

"Let's use common sense. How could it be a WASA problem when everywhere else has water?"

She claimed the HDC is not accepting responsibility, and pointed out that none of the residents are living for free at Olera Heights

"We are living here at a cost, and this is not the service that we signed up for."

Another resident, Ren Balroop, agreed.

Balroop said he has not received water at his 7th-floor apartment for a month.

"You find that residents on the lower floors getting water. They are not complaining."

He said the buildings are supplied with water from a nearby tank farm. The farm has three pumps to push water to the top floors of all the apartment buildings.

Balroop said, "When one pump goes, the pressure will start to deplete.

"Right now, we are working on one pump."

Balroop said this meant residents on higher floors may not receive water.

Two female residents complained about the lack of water hampering their ability to take care of eldery relatives and children.

A male resident said the HDC has told them it islooking into the problem.

Another female resident claimed the area's parliamentary representative, San Fernando West MP Faris Al-Rawi, has not done anything to help them.

As these residents spoke with the media, others went to a pipe outside one apartment building with bottles and buckets to fill with water to carry back to their apartments.

Al-Rawi, WASA and HDC officials were unavailable for comment.