Housing block left without running water for two months
Lisson Green council tenants have been forced to flush the toilet using buckets after being left without running water for almost two months.
Problems started at Pool House in Penfold Street in February when residents tried to turn on the taps in their bathrooms.
Toilets failed to refill when they were flushed and the only water available was the cold tap in the kitchen.
Rui Cepeda, 38, who only moved into the block in January, was forced to go to friends’ houses for showers and to wash his clothes.
“We had to fill up buckets of water from the kitchen to put down the toilet,” he said.
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“One of my flatmates started to go to the gym to shower and the others showered at work.
“We went to the estate office and they said everything on the estate was working fine so it must be a Thames Water problem.
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“But Thames Water said it was something that wasn’t working properly within the building. If it’s two or three days then you can understand. If it’s two weeks then something is wrong. But if it’s seven weeks or more then they obviously don’t give a damn what happens.”
The problem seemed to have been finally solved last Friday when a letter was sent to residents saying that housing manager CityWest Homes and Thames Water had fixed it.
But Mr Cepeda says water flow is still intermittent and hot water comes and goes throughout the day.
A CityWest Homes spokeswoman said they had “immediately contacted Thames Water when alerted to the problem” and the water company replaced a water meter on Friday.
“We apologise for the inconvenience caused to our residents by this issue,” she said. “We understand that this situation is unacceptable and we will be working with Thames Water to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
But Thames Water admits the problem is still ongoing and says it is the responsibility of CityWest Homes.
A spokesman said: “We are going to fix a small leak on a pipe on Broadley Street, which we don’t believe is the cause of the problem, but we want to be sure.
“Then we will follow up the hunches for what the problem is. We believe it’s an internal problem on the customer side of the pipe.”
