We may have to walk with umbrellas in our house
Published:Monday | September 30, 2024 | 12:05 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
Recently, as I was walking down the steps of my apartment, drops of water fell on my head even as I tried to sidestep the water on steps from the rain that fell throughout the night. Leaving home even in rain is a relief, because I’ve started to feel claustrophobic in my bedroom.
The bed had to be pulled further and further away from its original place due to the extent of the leak. Sometimes in the night, we know it is raining from the sound of the water droplets in the pans that have become ‘permanent residents’ in our bedroom. There is leakage from the bathroom ceiling, too.
This is what we have been living with in our home for years now at Unions Estate. There have been numerous complaints to the National Housing Trust (NHT), who at intervals have sent contractors to look; and each would say ‘this is bad’ as they examine the cracks in the kitchen, bathroom and the bedroom of our top-floor apartment home. The response of the contractors would give us hope that attention would be given. But then the sun comes out and there’s no drip, and no work is done, and we just continue to reside as if there are no problems.
Now with the days of projected rain, we may have to open umbrellas in the bedroom like passengers in the old JUTC buses before the new buses arrived.
Evening came and after hours of sunshine, here came the rain and once again, I’m in that tiny space in my bedroom, but now claustrophobia is replaced by glancing through the window down at the streams of cars, headlights on and in the rain with the drivers trying to decide how they can make it home. This is because with every downpour, a pool of water accumulates, preventing the residents of phase three of the scheme from getting home. Many either turn back or park their cars and walk. A few brave or misguided souls have braved it in the past and had to be rescued from their vehicles.
No doubt, the sun will come out again and the leaks and everything will be a distant memory, NHT will do nothing, and maybe me or another will write when the rains come again. Dry-weather house for millions.
TANYA POWELL