AN Irvinestown woman has thanked The Fermanagh Herald for helping her get her water supply back.
Julia Evangelista, a 58-year-old care worker, moved to her home just outside of Irvinestown four years ago.
However, her water supply began to decrease to the point where she could only get it in the early hours of the morning to sometimes having no supply at all.
Numerous calls were made to NI Water but a number of water maintenance staff would always give her the same answer – “there’s nothing wrong with your supply”, despite Julia demonstrating that she was getting little to no water.
She said: “Since I moved here about four years ago, the water wasn’t too bad in the beginning. Gradually, the supply would start to drop.
“We called the water board a few times. They came here so many times but no one ever gave us any explanation as to why this was happening.
“They would just check the meter that was down the main road but not the pressure. They would just say there was nothing wrong.
“The water would go off and then come back at one or two o’clock in the morning and then go back off again at 7am. For a number of weeks, it was completely off.
“I had to buy bottles of water – five litre cans. At night time when the water came on, I would fill the tank up in the attic with hot water. I used to get up at two in the morning and fill the cans with water for the daytime.
“For washing, I had to boil the kettle to get hot water to wash the dishes – don’t even mention what that did for my electricity bill. To use the shower, I had to get up at two in the morning. Six in the morning would be the latest to have a bath.
“It was ridiculous. however, during the summer it wasn’t so bad as it was lighter early in the morning. Winter time would be bad though.
“Sometimes I would have to take my clothes to be washed at the washing machines at the petrol station because there was no way my own machine would work with the water situation being as it was.”
Julia then turned to The Herald to see if we could help. We contacted NI Water after she called us and were emailed back a reply saying: “NI Water is aware of a pressure issue involving a properties, at Irvinestown. Our team are continuing to work closely with the householders to investigate the matter.”
We contacted Julia to tell her of NI Water’s response only to be greeted with a delighted Julia thanking us for getting her water back.
She said: “The same day I called the Herald, they called round later that day. They were back the day after that to take the pressure and worked on the water supply.
“The water is now back and running as it should – so thank you Fermanagh Herald for your help.”
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