With an arthritic knee, it's not easy for 74-year-old Florence Harvey to climb down the steep basement stairs of her house in Aldershot, outside Kentville.

But it's simply an unavoidable part of a continual routine that's lasted 41 years — every time it rains, her basement floods. The two sump pumps can't handle the steady stream and it's left to her, and more recently her son, to bail out the water by hand.

"We've been down here as high as 18 hours, at any given time," Harvey said.

"Water just runs in here because we are the draining system for the whole road."

Maurice Harvey has lung disease and his family doctor has outlined in letters to municipal and provincial officials his serious concerns about the 76-year-old remaining in the house. (CBC)

Harvey and her husband Maurice bought the Owen Road house in 1973 and were never told it was flood prone. When it rains, water flows down the street and collects on their property.

Adding urgency to their problem is mould from four decades of repeated water damage. Maurice Harvey has lung disease and his family doctor has outlined in at least four letters to municipal and provincial officials his serious concerns about the 76-year-old remaining in the house.

'We need to get out'

Since 1975, the Harveys have been asking the provincial government and the Municipality of the County of Kings to install a proper drainage system in the neighbourhood.

There have been plenty of back and forth and false starts, but the problem has never been fixed.

Now the Harveys say they are so fed up, they just want out.

"It's time that we got something done about this house," Florence Harvey said. "It's time that we go. We need to get out of this house, go to a place.

"I would love to be able to go to bed at night and sleep, but I can't."

The house is worthless, however, and without the equity they can't afford to move.

There has been some work done to try to mitigate flooding. Two catch basins were installed near the street, a French drain dug and concrete footing added along the basement walls.

None of it has stopped the water.

Vote to negotiate

There is glimmer of hope. Two years ago, the municipality and the province's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal agreed to cost-share roughly $200,000 worth of drainage work.

That requires an easement on a nearby property. On Nov. 4, the municipal council voted to negotiate with the landowner and, if that fails, begin expropriation.

Pauline Raven, the current area councillor for the Harveys, has catalogued four decades worth of records and correspondence dealing with the flooding. (CBC)

According to Pauline Raven, the current area councillor who has catalogued four decades worth of records and correspondence dealing with the flooding, another potential issue is cost.

An engineer's report is being prepared to further outline costs. The concern is it could be more expensive than what was agreed to in 2012.

"If the costs are exceedingly high, the council will need to enter a new debate about whether those costs are something that council can cover," Raven said.

'I did not follow up'

She said she hopes the costs don't escalate and the drainage project can finally move ahead.

Merrill Ward, a Municipality of the County of Kings councillor in the 1980s, said he was told at the time that municipal engineers would sort the problem out. He said he was shocked to learn two years ago that water is still washing through the basement.

"I feel guilty about it because I did not follow up on the thing to find out whether it had been completed or not," Ward said Friday.

Although retired from municipal politics, Ward has become involved in the issue again. He's trying to find out why the drainage was never corrected and the extent of the current problem.

"I was amazed at the seriousness of the problem, the health issues that they're experiencing here," he said.