Esquimalt residents without running water frustrated with lack of info about repairs

Three children in Esquimalt, B.C., were wheeling totes full of water from a neighbouring condo building to their own home Monday morning. It was not how these three expected to begin their spring break.

"We woke up on Saturday morning to rushing water, a basement full of water," said Hollie Johnson, owner of a condo at 877 Ellery St. in Esquimalt on Monday.

Around 5 a.m. Saturday morning, the condo’s four inch waterline had ruptured, causing massive flooding in the basement of the building. Within hours, the water had been turned off to the building.

"The city was on it," said Jeremy Northeast, another owner in the building.

But that left all 27 units in the building without running water. Now, 48 hours later, the water continues to be off, and the elevator is out of service since it was flooded as well.

"A whole lot of nothing is what’s happening," said Northeast as he turned on his bathroom tap to show there was no water coming out.

That’s the reason for those totes of water that the children were bringing Monday morning.

The building’s strata council has a contract with Complete Residential Property Management to look after these sorts of problems. But owners say they have been left in the dark.

"We’re kind of left in that kind of (no man's land) where we don’t know if it’s going to get fixed or when," said Archer Krown, who lives in the building.