Margo Williams, 56, of Martins Bay, St John, is fed up with the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) for not taking action to correct a problem she has been experiencing for over five years.
Williams said she realized something was wrong one day when she turned on her kitchen tap and saw tiny particles floating in the water.
That, said Williams, prompted her to install water filters but the problem remained.
She contacted the BWA and informed them of the situation but to her dismay, no one has taken her seriously.
“I would have been in touch with the BWA persons from the top to persons at the bottom, and I am not satisfied that they are treating the matter as seriously as they should.
I would have written them, telephoned and gone in. I live alone and I have to be looking out for myself,” cried Williams.
“It is an ongoing thing. My health is at stake . . . . I cannot go to my tap and turn it on and drink water. I have to boil it. I would be dehydrated a lot,” she continued.
Williams said she had to change the cartridges for the filters twice per month. She would put them in white and they would come out brown.
She also contended that her monthly water bill month has been increasing. The last time she went to the company to report the matter was on October 13.
“I believe they think I am just a miserable person but . . . . my health is at stake. I am getting a higher water bill now and I am not at home and have to be buying cartridges. If I don’t pay my bill they are going to disconnect my water. I am at my wits end as to what to do. I don’t know what to do,” she sighed.
“They said it was an engineering matter. It has been two months now since the last time I spoke to them, and no one has called me or left a message on my voicemail – nothing so. It makes me feel as though I am a nuisance [but] I have valid reasons for complaining,” she said, looking at the dirty cartridges.
Williams said she had to buy bottled water for drinking and cooking. She also expressed fear of using the water to shower.
When contacted, a quality control officer with the BWA said it was a matter of the [water] main needing to be “flushed”.
He said: “The water would be muddy and rusty at certain times, especially when it rains heavily. That is the reason she would be getting rusty-looking water.
But all she has to do is request for it to be flushed and we would flush it for her.”
