?I would love to see the water police on my doorstep. I only hope they stop first to fix the leak on my road that has been there for the last 20 years. No one believes me when I say there's been a leak for the last 20 years on the corner of Sydenham Avenue in St Ann's and the side street–10 Sydenham Avenue. Everyone thinks I am exaggerating. Some years ago I wrote a column about that leak and Mr Joseph of WASA came to fix the leak. Actually, in those days, there were many leaks in the road. He plugged all but one permanently. He even had some pipes changed. The main leak at the top of the road lasted for a couple of months, but the leak came back. In the meantime, Mr Joseph retired. Then the nightmare got worse. Sometimes I think I spend half of my lie on the phone with WASA. I call the hotline night and day. It's good to have a hotline that you can call just about any time. People actually answer the phone. They're pleasant. I'm pleasant. Sometimes, I'm pleasant. Sometimes I'm rough and even sarcastic. I don't intend to be nasty, but I'm at my wit's end. They always ask for a contact number. I give it, and somebody actually calls sometimes.
For the most part, though, the hotline is a cold line to nowhere. I can call several times a day for weeks and no one comes to fix the leak. It's not even a matter of wondering how many years I have to deal with this problem. It's now a matter of wondering how many decades do I have to deal with this problem. I can measure my son's life by the leak in the road. He was a baby the first time I called WASA and pleaded with them to fix the leak. I've been through leaks, gushers, geysers and fountains from the same hole in the road. At times I get up at 5 am to feed the dogs. I go outside. It's quiet and dark and then I hear something hissing like a giant snake. It's the leak in the road, which is about 30 feet from my house. I just don't understand why there is never any resolution to the problem. WASA, which loves to dig big holes in the road, never digs deep enough to bury this pipe. They come and fix the little piece of pipe, throw some sand on top of it or even gravel and leave. It's obvious to me that the pipe needs to be buried.
Cars are driving over it. Dogs are walking on it. Any number of things can be happening to a water pipe on top of a road. Whatever the problem is, it doesn't seem that it should take 20 years to fix. I have nightmares about the thousands, probably millions of gallons of water that have gone down the drain over the last 20 years. I feel down when I leave in the morning and drive past the leak. I feel worse when I return home and meet the leak. I don't like having water rationed. I don't like wasting water. I take this environmental thing and water conservation issue seriously. My grey Cube sits in my driveway caked with dust for months. My dogs look like relics from a museum because I avoid bathing them. I don't have grass for months of the year or even weeds because all they get is water that I dump from the dogs' water bowls when they don't drink all of their water before they go to sleep. I know that the rats roaming around the garbage thrive because WASA provides them with water to drink. They're cleaner than my dogs because they can bathe too.
When I've had enough of the WASA hotline and the wasting water, I call corporate services at WASA. These days I'm talking to Daniel in corporate services. At first he was baffled when I said I had a problem for 20 years. Still, he was professional and helpful. A day after I called him the leak was fixed. I called him to thank him. I said, "Thanks for fixing the leak." He sounded elated when he said, "Oh, so it's fixed." I said, "Well, it was for a day." There was silence on the other end of the phone. "Now you're going to see what I mean when I say this problem has been going on for 20 years." I'm hoping I don't have to harass Daniel for the next 20 years. I shutter to think that my problem is only one problem among what I suspect is probably hundreds of similar problems. WASA really needs to get its act together. The water police are fine, but who is policing the water police?