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News server Romea.cz. Everything about Roma in one place

Czech Republic: Romani residents of Přednádraží only have four days of water left

22 October 2012
2 minute read

Romani families living on Přednádraží street in Ostrava don’t yet have to worry about the fact that their water service has been cut off. Money has been raised to ensure the daily delivery of a water tank to the locality until Saturday. Yesterday families had no water and no way to pay for more, but donors from Ostrava have now covered the cost.

Yesterday evening, news server iDNES.cz drew attention to the new problem on Přednádraží street in an article entitled “People on Přednádraží street out of water” (“Lidé z Přednádraží zůstali bez vody”). A foreign lecturer teaching in Ostrava and a female resident of the Vítkovice neighborhood then contacted human rights activist Kumar Vishwanathan to see if they could help. The lady offered to donate CZK 1 500. “Others called in as well and now we have the water tank covered until Saturday,” Vishwanathan said.

The water company halted supplies to Přednádraží street two weeks ago for non-payment. A supplementary water tank was first paid for by the owner of the properties, Oldřich Roztočil, but when the Building Works Authority issued its decision that the tenants must move out, he stopped supplying that water because it could have been interpreted as his interfering with the performance of an official decision. The water was then paid for by various civic associations, who ran out of money at the end of last week.

That is no longer the case. When iDNES.cz asked whether the residents still living on Přednádraží street were paying for their own water, Vishwanathan answered: “Yesterday no, there was enormous depression here. However, today, when people started feeling better again, the Romani residents organized a collection among themselves and we have already put together CZK 500.” The head of the Romani resident’s construction group was also able to revive work on minor repairs to some of the occupied buildings.

Yesterday the landlord met with staff of the Ostrava Water and Sewer Works (Ostravské vodovody a kanalizace) company about possibly restarting service. There was disagreement as to the amount of money owed to the company, which is why a compromise was suggested: The landlord has offered to pay the debt owed for the deliveries to building no. 8 in order to restart service there. Company management was supposed to discuss this proposal today, but their decision has not yet been made public. The company will first deliver its decision in writing to the property owner.

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