23 July 1998 Edition
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.''
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.''