Texas School Stuck In Water Service Disaster

Locals in Harris County, TX, are living in a water service nightmare.

In part of the county, the land is unincorporated, and water services are provided by the private company Suburban Utility. Without a local government to hold the utility accountable, service for the last year and a half has become atrocious.

At the school YES Prep, staff keep five-gallon jugs of water in closets to use when the water shuts off for hours, which is a regular occurrence, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Charles Klein, director of facilities for YES Prep, said the campus has faced major problems at least 20 times over 15 months, sometimes resulting in school closings.

"To flush the toilets, students and staff have to pour in water from buckets. Hand sanitizer follows. Teachers, on their off periods, escape to a fast-food joint to use the restroom. In the modest homes nearby, also affected by repeated service interruptions, residents put off showers and laundry and cook with their own bottled stashes," the report said.

The water utility says state regulations are making it difficult to offer proper service.

"The state has always let it be known that they don't like private entities," said Les Romo, an attorney for Suburban Utility. "(The company owners) want to make some improvements. You can only fix what you can afford to fix."

YES Prep director Michelle LaFlure said the problems at the school are the fault of Suburban Utility.

"In this world, in 2014 ... we should not be a school battling with basic needs such as water," said LaFlure. "Last year, we lost water on campus 30 times. This year, we've lost water 4 times. Then 3 days in a row last week ... There's roughly a 1000 people using the same facilities. We hand flush all of the toilets and make sure there is drinking water for students and staff," she told ABC 13.

The school told parents in its weekly newsletter that it has complained about the utility to state authorities.

"Finding a permanent solution to the water outages is the top priority of our district leadership right now. We have filed an official complaint with the state oversight agency, Public Utility Commission, and are taking formal action to push the water company and local officials to solve this problem permanently," the newsletter said.