Residents of a Devonshire neighbourhood have called for change after being subjected to a series of water disruptions, most of which they said came without warning.

People who live on Mary Victoria Road and Alexandra Road put together a timeline that spanned almost two years and showed instances when the neighbourhood faced plumbing problems.

One resident said that the incidents happened on 42 different dates and were “only a snapshot” of how long the neighbourhood had been affected.

She added that the problems were compounded by other infrastructural problems such as safe lighting.

The 56-year-old, who asked not to be named, said: “At this point, we want deeds, not wishes.”

She added: “There are a lot of good people here. We don’t want to cause trouble, but we don’t think it’s right for anyone to live in conditions like these.”

The timeline listed incidents that happened between May 10, 2023 and March 28 this year.

Most occurrences involved water stoppages to toilets or faucets, but some also included low water pressure, broken and leaky pipes, or a combination.

The incidents, according to the list, lasted anywhere between 30 minutes and the entire day or overnight.

In some cases, multiple disruptions hit the community on the same day.

In one instance, the log said, an Alexandra Road resident reported a water disruption on March 9 at about 12.21pm.

The outage, which was later discovered to have affected the entire neighbourhood, was soon fixed — only to start up again at 8.53pm.

Three days later, a Mary Victoria Road resident also reported a water disruption that affected the entire neighbourhood.

According to the timeline, the disruption was first noticed on 12.21pm and fixed before another happened again at 10.16pm.

On March 21, a pipe burst on Greenwich Lane that had water “gushing from the ground”, a resident said, and cut flushing water to the entire neighbourhood.

Repairs began and water returned to most of the neighbourhood by 3.44pm — eight hours later — though problems with leaky faucets were reported after an hour, the list showed.

The following day, a neighbourhood-wide disruption was reported to the Department of Works and Engineering by a resident on Mary Victoria Road.

It was logged that the problem was fixed, but the water was turned off an hour later and remained off for four hours.

The list said that, of the 46 incidents, five of them had been warned about by the Department of Works and Engineering.

However, it noted that, in an incident on October 21 last year, only some residents of the neighbourhood received letters warning of a change in meters.

This partial warning led to confusion when water stopped running at 10.37am.

The timeline did not explicitly state how many of the unannounced water disruptions were planned by the Government.

It did, however, note that some incidents were the results of unexpected plumbing problems, while others were from temporary cuts to water for maintenance or service purposes.

In one incident, on November 4 last year, a Mary Victoria Road residents noticed around 4.58am that they had lost toilet water — a situation that was discovered to affect the entire neighbourhood.

The Department of Works and Engineering later confirmed that flushing water had been turned off to allow for the meters to be changed and would continue periodically.

The 56-year-old resident, who has lived in the area for most of her life, said that the record did not capture the true length of the problem.

She added that many had gone to the area Member of Parliament, Diallo Rabain, several times over the years to have the problems addressed, but never saw results.

The woman said: “We’re willing to put up with some disruptions if it means that we can have running water in the long run.”

Mary Victoria Road and Alexandra Road have struggled with plumbing and water-related problems for years.

The neighbourhood was plagued by brown water in 2016 and 2018, believed to have been caused by sediment build-up.

Andrew Murdoch, the Governor, noted during the Throne Speech last month that the Government intended to develop a “master plan” to fix the infrastructure of Mary Victoria Road, Alexandra Road and Cedar Park.

Several residents in the neighbourhood welcomed the proposal and asked for fixes to ageing pipes, restoring the paint of many homes and the addition of street lights.

However, a 73-year-old householder said that the promise rang hollow, adding that it was “too little, way too late”.

The woman, who also asked to remain anonymous, acknowledged the “blatant” years of patchwork fixes and the need for more work.

She pointed out that the neighbourhood lacked adequate street lamps and was dangerously dark at night.

The woman said the lack of light was hazardous for residents, especially given the area’s placement on a hill and its large population of seniors.

She said: “One of my neighbours had enough money to install her own security lights so that seniors who walked through could be safe. But for those of us who don’t, it’s very dangerous.”

The woman, who has lived there for almost 40 years, said that the neighbourhood used to have street lights to make the area more visible.

However, she added that they were never fixed once they stopped working and were eventually taken down, with the last one coming down in about 2016.

She said: “We used have something at night for the children who wanted to go trick-or-treating for Hallowe’en, but now it gets so dark that many of us have cancelled it.”

Last night, a Ministry of Public Works and Environment spokesman said: “The Government understands that reliable water service is critical, and disruptions, particularly those occurring without sufficient notice, can be frustrating for residents.”

The spokesman reiterated the Government’s commitment to its infrastructure master plan in the Throne Speech, and explained: “More specifically, we noted that we recognise that Mary Victoria Road, Alexandra Road and Cedar Park have been forced into a Band-Aid existence.

“This unique and proud area cannot be adequately served in this ongoing, piecemeal way. Therefore, the Government is developing a master plan for these areas to address long-running issues, including water and sewage.

“Regarding the reservoir referenced, we can confirm that repairs have been completed, the storage tank was filled and is now back in service.

“As it relates to addressing notifications for planned service interruptions, our approach involves advance notices to residents via direct communication through letter correspondence.

“However, unplanned disruptions are typically caused by main breaks or failures in ageing infrastructure.

“When these occur, our priority is restoring service as quickly as possible while keeping affected residents informed through public releases and direct calls to residents from our staff.

“We recognise that there must be an enhanced mechanism of engaging with residents in these areas, so we are actively exploring alternative awareness methods, including social media and additional outreach channels to improve the notification of planned and unplanned service disruptions.

“Lastly, we value feedback from our residents and remain committed to improving infrastructure resilience. The Government is focused on long-term solutions, and we regret any inconvenience caused to our valued customers during the outage periods.”