ST. LOUIS – Many south St. Louis residents dealt with water pressure issues over the weekend.
On Monday, city officials said this is due to the 16 water breaks reported over the weekend. Five of them have been repaired, but crews are still working to fix 11 others.
“It’s crazy that I feel like I need to justify why I need water,” said Amanda Randall, a resident. “Like I wrote down reasons. Well, it’s a whole gallon and a half to just flush your toilet one time. I don’t need reasons for why I need water.”
She said she has been without running water since Friday and like many other residents, tried calling the city’s emergency number to hopefully get answers.
“I was on the emergency line for over an hour and got hung up on,” Randall said.
She said when that didn’t work, she tried online.
“I submitted an online request, and they said they couldn’t get back to me based on what I said,” Randall said. “You know, water out on the road, no running water, until June 19 is when they could resolve my request.”
City officials said crews are making repairs as quickly as possible. Some of the breaks are in busy intersections and are causing traffic concerns.
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said the price tag to fix the city’s water problems is about $400 million.
“We cannot simply afford to avoid this problem. This is a major infrastructure issue in our city, and I am going to address it,” she said.
Jones said increasing water rates and bills would be one of the options being discussed to pay for the necessary updates. She said the last increase was more than 10 years ago.