Monte MAYHEM: Water and Sanitation SHUT OFF

Welcome back home, Freshers! Want to wash yourselves in someone else’s shower? What about having to take a shit in someone else’s loo? How about rolling power outages across the whole of your block? Then come on down to Wessex Lane, Montefiore 1 A-block where residents have been subject to this since Thursday of last week!

“It smelled like a thousand people had been sick and it had been left for a year.”

Residents who’d returned early from their holidays were greeted with a nauseating stench on Thursday afternoon, before being told that a pipe connecting A block’s water supply to the mains water source had malfunctioned and that running water, i.e. basic sanitation, was being cut off while the problem was being dealt with. Fast-forward 5 days, with the whole of A-block still lacking running water, we have been forced to take showers and use toilets in the neighbouring B block, much to the inconvenience of everyone.

Word from the Accommodation Services is that a specialist part was ordered on Saturday for delivery on Monday, but, on finding out that the problem had not been resolved by then, we were told to ‘hang in there’ and hope that they could get it fixed by today. The last thing you want to do on the first Monday back is have to organise how to shower, before facing the scrum that is the 8.10-8.50 hell of the Monte bus stop for the first lectures of the day.

Then, at around 3pm on Monday afternoon, the entirety of A-block was informed that meetings between SUSU, Accommodation Services and the JCR Team had taken place, culminating in a meeting for all residents at the Boilerhouse (Bar Monte) at 3.30pm.

I can report first hand, that the meeting resulted in a compromise; work would take approximately 5-7 days to complete with sporadic power outages, and that we could be relocated if necessary, on a first-come, first-served basis at the Wessex Lane Reception from 4.30pm, with a £5 food voucher for every night we are without sanitation and running water.

So the next time you’re enjoying a hot shower, washing up in your kitchen, or just the simple act of taking your morning dump, just take a moment to think about the 94 residents of A-block – cue violins – who don’t have the luxuries you do – being just a few tens of metres away from you. Welcome to A-block, Southampton’s very own temporary third-world.

I just feel sorry, if only slightly, for the person on the other end of [email protected] because they’ve got an absolute shitstorm heading their way, no pun intended.