E. Harlem complex water main misery

Hours after NYCHA repaired a water main break Tuesday morning, hundreds of residents at the Taft Houses in East Harlem had to contend with another outage, forcing families to once again rely on donated and store-bought water to cook and clean.

The second water main break knocked out service to all of the complex’s nine buildings between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., affecting about 3,000 residents in the nearly 1,500unit development.

By late afternoon service to two buildings had been restored. Residents in the remaining seven buildings were left to scramble.

“They’re running out of water,” said Beverly MacFarlane, the complex’s tenant association leader, about bottled water supplied by NYCHA and local elected officials. “We don’t have adequate water to service all of our residents.”

MacFarlane said residents were struggling to get water from one of four fire hydrants opened so they could use it to flush their toilets.

That water, she noted, is not fit for human consumption.

The chaos at Taft came one day after a similar scene unfolded there, as mothers waited up to an hour in line at hydrants and then had to lug water up to their apartments.

As of Tuesday evening, a NYCHA spokeswoman said NYCHA was “making progress” on restoring service.

NYCHA’s site also reported a heat outage to the entire development Tuesday afternoon that was repaired by 5:30 p.m.

“The water main is approximately 70 years old and both pipes broke because it is aging fragile infrastructure,” said NYCHA spokeswoman Barbara Brancaccio. Hours later she added: “Repairs are completed. Some residents are beginning to experience restored service as we speak.”