For more than 24 hours, the Habana Park Condominiums did not have water.
The HOA president, Peter Busto, blamed a leaking pipe that was found underground near an entrance of the community for the inconvenience. The community is located off Habana Avenue in Tampa. Busto said they were forced to turn off the water as early as Monday morning.
“We had to turn it off. We were wasting gallons and gallons (of water),” Busto said.
According to the HOA president, the community has 140 units; he added many of the people, who live in the community, are elderly.
“They’re calling us….where’s the water? We don’t have no water. How are we going to flush our toilets? How are we going to bathe? How are we going to cook,” Busto said.
Amanda Candileri said it was frustrating not having water for more than 24 hours.
“Try getting up in the morning to get ready for work and there is no water,” Candileri said.
Busto said he was upset they had to hire a company to fix the leak. He wanted the city to repair it. He blames construction from a decade ago for their issue the past two days. He said they are spending thousands of dollars on the repair.
“They said today we’ll come out and look at it and see what’s going on. As soon as he came, he said it’s on your property. I said, but you all put the pipe that’s not ours….I’ve lived here 37 years that pipe wasn’t here when I moved here,” Busto said.
The city confirmed someone from their water department responded to the community.
The city added any maintenance and pipe repairs owned by customers are the customers’ responsibility. They stated in an email they will help as much as they can in cases like this, but ultimately “we cannot assume the customers’ responsibility.”
Regardless, Candileri said she is glad the leak was fixed by the company. Their water was restored Tuesday evening.
“I hope that this is it. We’re fixed and good to go,” Candileri said.
