When will the scene of Hanoi apartment residents lining up all night to carry water end?

One morning, over a cup of coffee with a friend who lives in the Gemek 1 apartment complex (An Khánh, Hoài Đức, Hanoi ), he confided: "Living in an apartment building might seem 'prestigious,' but nothing scares me more than having my water cut off." Unexpectedly, that very night, dozens of households in his apartment complex were without water.

He sighed as he spoke to me on the phone: " What people say is like what the gods say, sir. Now I'm willing to trade my 'prestige' just for a bucket of water right in front of my house ."

Just like his family, the residents of the same apartment building spent the whole night calling out to each other, struggling in and out of the elevator to fetch water temporarily taken from the water tank originally intended only for fire fighting. Someone accidentally blurted out that if there was an electrical short circuit or fire, where would they get water to put it out on the spot? Immediately, the whole building ganged up on them, scolding and berating them.

The case of Gemek 1 (An Khanh, Hoai Duc, Hanoi) has added to the list of apartment buildings experiencing water outages, forcing residents to struggle, carrying buckets of water up to the upper floors day and night. Prior to Gemek 1, notable cases included Hanoi Paragon and Hateco Xuan Phuong apartment buildings, 361 Nghia Do apartment building, and most notably, Thanh Ha urban area.

Water outages in many apartment buildings, including high-end ones, in Hanoi, especially in certain areas, are no longer uncommon. The lack of water disrupts daily life and work. Some residents try to find temporary accommodation with relatives, while others, without family, resort to renting rooms, hotels, or guesthouses near their apartment or workplace.

Then came countless tragicomic scenes to ensure daily life continued: parents bathing with their children's bathwater, every bucket and basin in the house being used to collect water, suppressing personal hygiene as much as possible, grandparents and parents taking turns fetching water... A person who used to live in the old quarter and had to queue every night for water at the public tap at the beginning of the street lamented: " I thought I would never see the scene of buckets and containers queuing again, but... "

The reason for water outages is often cited as "force majeure," while the exact time when water supply will be restored is usually vague and uncertain.

A scene of residents struggling to find water for daily use in an apartment building during a water outage. (Illustrative image)

Everyone knows that clean water is a basic daily need, directly related to ensuring food, hygiene, and health. Even unavoidable water outages have a significant impact on the psychology and lives of apartment residents. Meanwhile, responsibility for water supply is often unclear, and localized water supply solutions are usually reactive. When water is cut off, residents are mostly left to fend for themselves, even pooling money to buy water tankers just to obtain the scarce water needed to sustain their lives.

At most apartment sales presentations, the "beautiful descriptions" of a dream home for buyers usually focus on the beautiful view, proximity to markets, schools, and transportation, but there is almost never any mention of contingency plans for ensuring reliable electricity and water supply.

Homebuyers themselves seem to pay little attention to the two most essential necessities of life: electricity and water. They wonder how to address these issues, which agency to contact, whether to call the building management or the developer when problems arise. And if the water and electricity supply is not consistently guaranteed, do residents have the right to sue?

Clearly, there are still many loopholes regarding responsibility for ensuring basic living needs like electricity and water for residents of apartment buildings. As long as these loopholes remain unresolved and no clear solutions are in place, the question of when the need to carry water through the night and in shifts will end will continue to hang over apartment buildings, even those labeled "luxury" when it's unclear what kind of "luxury" they actually are!

Source: https://congthuong.vn/khi-nao-moi-het-canh-dan-chung-cu-ha-noi-xep-hang-xuyen-dem-xach-nuoc-352567.html