His water was turned back on by the City of Buffalo on March 20, where he can now enjoy things like taking a shower.

Buffalo Water has a moratorium on shutting off water for people, but now organizers are asking for city officials to better communicate how people can get water restored and to take proactive steps to restore water for those who lost it.

“In this emergency situation, we can’t afford any more delay,” Andrea O Suilleabhain, Executive Director of Partnership for the Public Good, said. “This group of partners came together and came up with a list of six very practical steps the city could take to show this time that restoring water to its residents is a top priority.”

Those steps include:

• Sending letters to Buffalo Water customers shut off in the last year announcing that water can be turned on at no cost by calling 847-1065.
• Run repeated public service announcements on radio and television
• Update their websites to announce that water service can be restored at no cost
• Create a database of all residents where the water is shut off
• Call residents to initiate water restoration
• Report the number of residents with water service restored since March 17

“These are real common-sense and not heavy-lift steps,” O’ Suilleabhain said. “For us, this would actually show the City of Buffalo is taking the lack of water seriously and show that they consider it a top priority.”

Read the full article on the WBEN website here.