Homes without water
Barry McElduff, SF West Tyrone assembly member, along with his
colleagues Martin Conway and Sean Clarke of Omagh district
council, called on the Water Executive last week to appoint a
representative to the local Area Based Strategic Action Group
(ABSAG) to tackle the problem of homes in the area without
running water.
Their call came after a meeting they had with Nuala Cormicsan of
ABSAG to discuss the number of homes in the rural Plumbridge and
Donemana areas which are denied running tap water.
McElduff called for a ``comprehensive, integrated, inter-agency
strategy'' and for ``funding to be made available to meet thius
crucial service requirement, without which people living in
certain rural townlands are disadvantaged.'' He added ``We are
pinpointing a huge gap in local services which is not
acceptable.'' He estimated that hundreds of homes are without
running water in the locality.
He urged people who experience this problem to contact ABSAG at
11c Main Street, Plumbridge, Co. Tyrone, BT 79 8AA.
In a letter from the Water Executive to a family in the Altishane
area of Donemana the authority claimed it would be ``uneconomical''
to provide the residents their requested public watermains unless
they contributed over £10,000 to the project themselves.
McElduff said ``a public watermains should not cost a householder
anything. It should be a recognised human right, an absolute
necessity, not a luxury.''
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