Water to flow from faucets tonight for 50 NDG residents
Roughly 50 residents of a Notre-Dame-de-Grâce apartment building are expected to get their water back tonight, after nearly a week of managing on bottled water.
An aging water main broke last Thursday, leaving residents of the Girouard Street building, located near the corner of Sherbrooke Street West, without running water.
One tenant, Léa Fournier, said she was on her way home from work when her boyfriend called to warn her the water wasn't working.
"I thought I would wake up and the water would be back, but it wasn't."
On Saturday, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce public works crews came to repair the damage.
Fournier said the water came back on for a few days, but there was no hot water and the pressure was very low.
Tuesday night, the water was shut off yet again.
Since the water was shut off, Fournier said tenants have been relying on jugs of water the borough has dropped off in the apartment building lobby.
"I can't do the dishes, I can't shower, can't flush the toilet, can't do anything. I had to miss work today," she said.
"It's really inconvenient."
Water to go back on tonight
Karina Sanchez, a spokesperson for the CDN-NDG borough, said after crews repaired the pipe on Saturday, there was another blockage. She was unable to provide further details.
She said the reason the water service interruption hasn't been addressed yet is due to the location: the intersection of Girouard and Sherbrooke is a busy one.
She said doing work in that area means inconveniencing some 25,000 motorists who cross through that intersection daily.
Borough workers were on the scene to fix the problem around 6:30 p.m., with police present to direct traffic.
Sanchez said the process was further delayed because the borough's public works officials had to wait for the apartment building's landlord to confirm whether the waterworks problem was located on his private property or on city property.
A man who would only identify himself as the landlord denied that.
If the problem turns out to be bigger than initially expected, the borough will use a bypass method to circumvent the problem until it can be fixed, Sanchez said.
No matter what, residents will have access to tap water tonight, she confirmed.
