A CENTRAL DUBLIN apartment complex is currently experiencing its eighth day, and second weekend, of water pressure reduced to a trickle.
Residents of the 144-apartment Bertram Court, near Christchurch in Dublin’s city centre, have had their water supply reduced to a trickle since last Friday, 21 August.
People have been reduced to showering at the gym or with “bottles of water”.
Residents say that the management company in charge of the upkeep of the complex have been avoiding phone calls and putting the issue on the long finger.
“There’s a trickle coming out so there is some water in the tank but we have no fresh water,” Bertram resident Ciaran Reinhardt told TheJournal.ie.
I was talking to another woman and she’s been using bottles of water to shower.
You’d be there 3 or 4 minutes waiting to fill a glass of drinking water.
Another guy said he hasn’t showered in three days and he had something to go to today and he was worried he wouldn’t be able to without a shower.
It’s not acceptable to leave people like this without running water.
Reinhardt says he has been assured by the building’s management company on at least two occasions this week that the problem would be fixed by last Monday, and then last Tuesday.
Following this Reinhardt says he was no longer able to raise the building manager on the phone.
“None of them answer me anymore,” he says.
I got in touch with local councillors and he was basically telling them that it’s already fixed and working fine.
They’re lying through their teeth to get out of doing this. There’s families with young babies here, I don’t even know how they’re coping.
Dublin City Council say they have no responsibility regarding the issue as the complex is a private one.
TheJournal.ie contacted the building’s manager, Martin Moloney, who admitted to us that there is no immediate end to the problem in sight.
“Look, there’s 144 apartments in that development, and only eight of them are experiencing trouble,” he said.
We’ve been working on it all week but we’ve only just ascertained that an underground water leak is to blame.
When asked about a problem with his approachability Moloney replied that he deemed such criticism “unfair”.
“Anyone who’s telephoned me I’ve informed them step by step what the problem is,” he said.
Currently residents of Bertram Court are charged €1,500 annually for the upkeep of the complex.
When asked whether or not he thought residents might file for compensation Moloney acknowledged that he would “understand” if they did so.
Meanwhile, Labour TD Eric Byrne told TheJournal.ie that it is “quite incredible” that the management company couldn’t guarantee the residents’ water supply.
“You’d have to level questions regarding the competency of the managers in question,” Byrne said.
I would certainly hope that the tenants and residents would take appropriate action with regard to their rights.
These people are paying substantial money towards their facility, and that water can’t be provided to them is just unbelievable.
Additional reporting Michelle Hennessy
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say