Pointe-Claire tenants worried after water cut off for days

Pointe-Claire tenants in seven neighbouring apartments are relieved after their water came back on Thursday afternoon, but they aren’t sure if it will last.

Jonah Moulic said the water in her building on Pardo Avenue turned off on Tuesday and that afternoon, she saw water bursting out of a pipe in the parking lot near her basement apartment.

The water came into the building, flooding parts of the building’s basement. The pipe that broke led the water to be turned off to seven buildings in the area, affecting dozens of tenants.

READ MORE: Dozens of Plateau Mont-Royal tenants face eviction over mould, bug infestation

Moulic has four children. With no water since Tuesday, laundry started piling up. She spent a lot of time boiling water for dishes and bathing — and she needed bucketfuls to flush the toilet.

“When they take a bath I save the water and I flush the toilet,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "When they take a bath I save the water and I flush the toilet," she said.

Work crews were out for the third straight day on Thursday trying to fix the broken pipe. They told Global News the freezing weather made the job that much harder and the pipes kept breaking.

“It’s a water leak and we fixed it and it broke a little more so we changed and each time it broke we got a little farther,” said Vincent Saint-Amour Couchon, of Bex X contractors.

READ MORE: Some Notre-Dame-de-Grâce residents without running water for five days

Residents in the different buildings said by Thursday, it was starting to get difficult to stay in their apartments.

“I think the biggest problem is the bathroom and obviously the dishes are piling up,” said Bill Hill.

Hill lives two apartment buildings down from Moulic. He and his wife are frustrated because they say they received virtually no information from the landlord or the city throughout the week.

“Nothing,” he said.

“The only thing I saw last night was a sign at the entrance saying boil the water but there is no water to boil.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The only thing I saw last night was a sign at the entrance saying boil the water but there is no water to boil."

The City of Pointe-Claire told some tenants the pipes were privately owned and not their responsibility, but it dropped bottles of water off each day in each building.

The owner of the building where the problem started lives in Ohio. Global News tried contacting him, but didn’t receive a response.

On Wednesday afternoon the water came back on briefly but then turned off again.

Tenants said the water came back on Thursday afternoon, but they worry it may just be a matter of time before the pipes break again.