High water pressure damaging pipes

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I am a National Water Commission (NWC) customer in St Mary who regularly visits their offices complaining about the pressure being too high in my pipes. This has led to destruction of taps, washing machine, toilet tanks and the pipes regularly burst in my yard and along the main road.

I am hyper vigilant as I have become accustomed to burst pipes. But recently they informed me that I had a burst pipe which I was not aware of. After checks made by NWC technicians they sent us a bill for $108,000. This from our regular bill of around $4,000 to $6,000. We subsequently had a plumber pressure test the house and he informed us that the pipe that was burst was probably under our bathroom floor.

Long story short, we had to arrange to pay them $108,000 plus our monthly bill. But now for the past two weeks there is a burst main pipe in front of our entrance way. I have called customer care, called the manager of the Port Maria offices – every time they make promises, but to date no one has come to fix the pipe and the water is flowing freely.

It seems that NWC is only interested in billing and collecting money from their customers! How is it that despite numerous complaints made, no one has come to repair the broken pipe. This is despicable, as it has now undermined the roadway and an adjacent wall. Every day I see NWC advertisements about their stellar customer services. Perhaps they could reroute some of their advertising budget towards repairs.

CLAUDIA RIJKER