A mother of a young son has hit out at one of London’s biggest housing associations after her Borough estate went without running water for three days this week – with some residents not even offered bottled water.
People living in the Douglas Buildings in Marshalsea Road lost access to running water on Monday (November 29) and only had it turned back on on Thursday afternoon, after a pipe sprang a leak.
Loyla Akhtar said Peabody, which owns the 100-flat estate, were slow to react to the problem despite several complaints soon after the water went off.
“I spoke to them, I said we need water because it’s an emergency,” she said. “I called them again [on Thursday] morning, I said ‘my son needs to go to school, and we can’t even flush the toilet.'”
She said she logged the issue with the repair team, but later contacted them again and found that there was no record of this.
“They should be contacting us – but no one has said anything.”
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Ms Akhtar added that she was “disgusted” that she had to buy water for herself and her son Deen, rather than being offered some by Peabody.
The housing association said they had offered people bottled water and would “look into” why some residents did not get this.
The heating has stayed on in the flats for now, but Ms Akhtar said over Christmas last year the heating failed, meaning she and her son had to go stay with relatives because it was too cold.
A spokesperson for Peabody said: “We are sorry that people on the estate have not had water this week and we know it’s been a difficult situation for them. Our teams have been on the estate since the issue was first reported to us on Tuesday.
“We were checking on vulnerable residents and offering support throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, as well as ensuring that people had bottled water while we identified and fixed the issue. We will look into why some people appear not to have received the bottled water we arranged.
“The disruption to the water supply was resolved on Thursday when access to running water was restored. It was caused by a leak in the pipes and involved a complex repair replacing a section of pipework which meant the works took longer than expected. We will monitor the situation over the weekend to ensure that residents continue to have water.”
