Wrangling over water in Portugal Cove-St. Philip's
Harrison Parsons of Portugal Cove-St. Philip's has been without running water in his home for more than two years, and he's blaming the unsanitary situation on the local town council.
Parsons says development in the area interfered with the movement of ground water, and his once reliable well went dry.
He's also questioning why his property was overlooked when municipal water services were brought to the area nearly two decades ago.
At the time, property owners were not charged to have the service hooked up to their homes.
But Parsons argues that the town should rectify the oversight, at no cost to him.
The town council, however, says Parsons must pay the nearly $3,000 to connect to the municipal water supply.
Parsons has been relying on the kindness of his neighbour, Wayne Somerton, for water. He fills plastic jugs from a garden hose, and lugs them across the road to his home.
It's a routine he's undertaken hundreds of times.
"It's pretty hard, you know, lugging the buckets back and forth," Parsons told Here and Now.
"I got a bad back, and arthritis in the shoulders … it's not good in winter."
Parsons uses the water for cooking and drinking, and collects rain water in order to flush his toilet.
He goes to his sister's house for baths.
A dry well
Parsons has lived in the house on Bauline Line with his mother and father for most of his life.
His father passed away several years ago, and his mother now lives elsewhere for most of the year.
A well in the basement supplied good quantities of water to the family, but not anymore.
Around the same time that Parsons' well went dry, the same thing happened to Edna and Edgar Spurrell. The Spurrells have lived in Portugal Cove-St. Philip's for 40 years, and blame their water quandary on construction at a nearby housing development
Parsons believes the solution is simple. He wants the town to pay the cost of installing a water hook-up to his house.
"I can't see why my mother got to pay it. No one else had to pay it. Why skip one person?" he asked.
Can't afford to pay
Wayne Somerton supports his distressed neighbour.
"I mean, I don't know why they couldn't give the man water at least. After all this time, it's ridiculous," said Somerton.
A town official could not explain why Parsons' property was skipped all those years ago, but said it's now town policy to charge property owners for connections to the water supply, even if everyone else in the area was connected for free.
Parsons said he doesn't have $3,000 to pay for a connection, meaning he'll likely be making plenty more trips across the road for water.
