Water issues by Allen Lockington

Submitted by AllenL on Sat, 20/02/2010 - 12:58pm

It’s a pity that many people, after taking their grievances to the proper authority eventually go to the papers and tell the world that they got a bad deal at the water or electricity company. Many times we read about people who had a run in with an unhappy and overworked nurse or doctor who had been rude to them. The authorities never respond to deny or apologize. But it makes good reading. As for me I always think that the complainants are wrong because no authority ever goes back to the paper to apologise or sends the police to charge the complainant for false accusation. Anyway one great problem that we are facing is water cuts. We have been told that we are experiencing a drought and the rivers are running dry. It is costing government thousands of dollars, which will soon go into the millions, to cart water to places where water has been cut or pressure is not strong enough that they have to turn off some places so that other places can drink.

But there has never been any evidence shown to the people about the truth on pressure. Low water in the dam we can understand. Can a water engineer via the assistance of the TV companies do a documentary about the many manoeuvres that they have to go through shutting water here and there so it is distributed evenly? If PWD can do this documentary, all the people who have been complaining can understand the predicament that is at hand and stop complaining. And another thing when water is cut, could the PWD be decent enough to let us know that water will not be turned on at a certain place and time. FEA takes great pains to publish controlled power cuts for maintenance – the water company never does this. This way we can appreciate and respect each other. Or better still can someone from FEA go over to the water company and tell them how it’s done, please. I have a lot of respect for FEA.

I bet many letters of complaint can never be published because they contain swears.