Cancer-stricken pensioner without water for eight days
WHEELCHAIR USER HOUSEBOUND DUE TO ICY CONDITIONS
Wexford native Mary Bergin at her home in Arklow.
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A PENSIONER with cancer has been housebound and living without running water in her home since Christmas Day.
Mary Bergin, aged 71, a Wexford native now residing at Murrell Drive, Inbhear Mór Park, in Arklow, contacted this newspaper in an effort to highlight her situation after she failed to get any satisfaction from Arklow Town Council.
'I am in a wheelchair and cannot leave my house. There is a step at the front and back which was covered in ice so I could not get out. I spent Christmas alone looking out the window and crying because my son could not make it up from Wexford with the bad weather,' she said.
Ms. Bergin has not had running water except for a few hours between Christmas and New Year and has been virtually cut off for eight days.
The only contact she has had with the outside world is from her home help carers who spend half an hour at her home each day and have been picking up supplies for her.
'I have no water in the taps and the lavatory won't flush. I am just beyond stressed at this stage. I feel there is nothing I can do about it. The way I feel is that I will be happy to go home to my native Wexford to be buried,' she said.
Ms. Bergin, who hails from Carcur, said that she and her son have called Arklow Town Council but they have not had any assistance to date.
'My neighbours' water wasn't affected so I don't know what the problem is with my house. I thought coming to Arklow would be wonderful but now I can't wait to get out of it. I have had nothing only hardship in this town from break-ins to water problems. I just feel I have nothing to be positive about,' she added.
Town Clerk Des Nichols said council staff had called to Ms. Bergin's home on two occasions but as the problem was frozen pipes nothing could be done except to wait for them to thaw.
He said that some other houses in the area experienced the same problem.
He added that another call was arranged for Monday and it was hoped the matter could be rectified on that day.
