Browse Sections

• Education
• Business
• Blog
• Special reports

Prayers cancelled as pressure plunges

1/12/2002

RAMADAN washing rituals have been disrupted because of the firemen's' strike claim Muslims in Rochdale.

They say water pressure fell so low after a town centre fire that homes were without hot water making washing more uncomfortable before prayers.

Some families with young children or elderly relatives decided not to wash and had to abandoned prayers - a particularly upsetting situation during the holy month of Ramadan.

Water bosses at United Utilities admitted the low pressure problem had affected 100s of home in the Deeplish area of the town after nine army Green Goddesses were used to fight a large blaze at a tyre depot on Sparthbottoms Road.

They gained control of the blaze within 12 hours but were still damping it down and using water three days later. Many homes in Deeplish have water systems where, if the pressure falls below a certain point, the heating is cut off for safety reasons.

Said Mohammed Yousaf of the Rochdale Complaints Authority said: "Since the fire I've had many people from my area complaining about this. Some are unable to perform their wudu and others are having to do it in freezing water. This is very upsetting as it is it is the holy month of Ramadan when people are much more keen to read their prayers but are unable to do so. Many people cannot take a bath either."

A spokeswoman for United Utilities said that the pressure had dropped due to the fire and had continued to be low due to the length of time taken to deal with the blaze. She added: "We are attempting to re-zone water supplies to bring up the pressure in the affected areas and the problem should be solved soon. We apologise for the inconvenience caused to our customers."

A spokesman for the army said: "With the fire this size it is not unreasonable to be still damping down days later. We must be mindful of the safety of the people who live near by and the possibility of re-ignition."