‘Three-year’ leak troubling for residents

Residents in Lodge Terrace, the City, are upset that the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) has not yet fixed a meter which has been leaking for the past three years.

When Barbados TODAY visited the area today a section of the road was flooded, and an irate resident lamented that the leaking meter seemed to be changing the road’s infrastructure.

One resident who requested anonymity said she was one of several residents, who has made calls to BWA complaining about the vexing issue, but up to this point, it has not been remedied.

“That meter is leaking from the water authority’s side and not the resident’s side. But the resident’s guard wall is coming forward and falling as a result of the water. If you stand in that grass, your feet would go straight down. And if you stand in the road there, you would see that there is a descent in the road because the road is caving in now. It is a major stop and when cars come there they avoid going into the water. The water has now gone across the other side,” the resident said.

“We have had people from water authority coming to look at it and nothing has been done. There are staff who came and said that since it was so for so long it could remain so. Since then people have come at several intervals, but nothing has been done.

“They have to dig here on my driveway to repair it and I have given them permission, but still nothing has been done. The meter man took several pictures to take into the office and he told me he can only report it, he can’t do anything about it. Somebody subsequently came to fix another meter, and he said he would report it. Still nothing has happened, and this is three years that nothing has been done with this meter,” the resident continued.

She indicated that watching the water waste everyday was heartbreaking considering that there are parts of the island experiencing water outages.

“There are people who cannot get water in this country and the Barbados Water Authority is allowing this to continue for over three years. This is ridiculous. When the rain falls, it floods. I just want it repaired. All we are asking is for them to come and repair this meter. This is three years I have been calling and we are not getting the issue rectified. I am tired of calling the Barbados Water Authority,” the resident said.

Barbados TODAY’s efforts to get an official response from the Barbados Water Authority proved unsuccessful up to publication time. anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb