The fountains in Ixelles' Place Flagey are working again since Friday, municipal authorities announced, as they rejoiced that their calls to repair the fountain, broken since the start of the heatwave, were heard by regional authorities.
"We have good news," Ixelles Mayor Christos Doulkeridis tweeted on Thursday. "The [Brussels-Capital] Region was quick to respond to our request of restoring the water jets in Place Flagey, they will be working from [Friday] morning."
The news comes as residents and other authorities from the Brussels municipality complained that the fountains were not operating since the start of week, which saw temperatures soar to record highs.
The fountains had broken down during an earlier event and had not been immediately repaired, prompting local councillors to call out a perceived lack of coordination between municipal and regional authorities.
The situation in the busy Ixelles' square led city residents to denounce local authorities for the lack of vegetation in the city, and for an overall lack of infrastructure for dealing with rising temperatures, with one resident calling referring to some of Brussels' main squares as "heat traps."
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
