Fifth Ward neighbors upset about water line leaking since the freeze: 'We matter'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A leaking water line in Fifth Ward has neighbors upset and reportedly dealing with low pressure. It's been spewing water for a couple of weeks.

"Welcome to Fifth Ward and all the problems that exist here," Walter Mallett said.

Despite folks' best efforts to wrap a shirt around the pipe and contain it, the problem didn't go away. The line, which is near the intersection of Liberty Road and Cushing, froze like an ice sculpture Christmas weekend, and it burst, according to neighbors. Since then, they told Eyewitness News the water in their house has been impacted.

"Why (hasn't anybody) fix this? This is messing with our water pressure. People's water pressure in this neighborhood is very low now because of this. It's hit or miss. Some days it's on normal point. Some days it's slow," resident Sandra Edwards explained.

Eyewitness News reached out to the City of Houston's Public Works Department about the unwelcome waterfall. We're told this is an abandoned line, so it isn't active, and shouldn't be affecting the neighbors' pressure. When asked if it once belonged to the city or a private business, they couldn't find a record of it. Regardless, the city stuck to its word and sent crews out to repair it.

Neighbors love to see it, but to them, they believe it would never have taken this long, or ABC13 to get involved if this was in a more affluent area.

"It's a continuous message that we simply don't care. We matter just like the people in River Oaks matter. We matter just like people over in the Meyerland area," Joetta Stevenson, president of Fifth Ward Super Neighborhood Council, said.

The city said it had no record of complaints from residents about their water pressure and wanted to stress to them, and anyone with Houston services to call 311 so they can document the problem.

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