Flats left high and dry with no running water

Residents in a block of flats have claimed to be living without running water for hours on end.

Occupiers at Caerau Court in Caerau, Cardiff, have resorted to showering in the early hours, storing water in containers to wash and cook and buying bottled water.

Some residents said the long-running issue had been going on for 20 years, but has worsened in recent years.

Wales & West Housing, which manages the flats, blamed the issue on a reduction in water pressure in the area which it aims to resolve with a water storage and pump system.

Welsh Water said the pressure in its water network was "well above the required operating standard".

"You won't get a drop through the tap for 10 or 12 hours through the day," said resident Richard Tobin, 75, speaking about the weekends with more residents at home compared with the rest of the week.

"When it does come on, the pressure is so low that it won't heat the boiler or the shower.

"It has just got to a point where it is ridiculous now."

The housing organisation has given residents containers to fill and use at times when the water is not running.

Mr Tobin said when his 95-year-old aunt lived with him for almost three years he would fill three water bottles in advance so her carers had water to wash her.

"For me and for the other residents it has become a routine," he said.

"If I want a shower in the week and the weekend… I have to get up about 5am… so that we have got the pressure through the shower to heat the water."

Neighbour Julia Walsh, 57, said her laundry had been ruined in the past and she woke up one Christmas morning without any water.

"It is getting hard work now even trying to cook," she added.

"It is going back to the dark ages. You just can't live properly."

She is one of a number of residents at Caerau Court who pay for crates of bottled water, costing her about £10 each week.

Martin Newman, 71, is another who is regularly spending on bottled water on top of the £20 he said he paid for his water bill each month.

"It is breaking our washing machine because there is no water in it.

"It is just not right. We shouldn't have this problem."

Wales & West said: "Since 2020 we've been having discussions with Welsh Water and have established the cause of the problem as being a reduction in the water pressure in the area."

It said it understood the situation "can be frustrating for our residents" and it had had discussions with contractors to design a water storage and pump system to solve the issue.

"This is a major investment project which we aim to start this year," it said