Exclusive | NYCs cooling splash pads facing outages in record numbers with dozens of playgrounds affected

Spray it ain’t so!The beloved spray showers used by tiny tots to cool off during the hot summer months in city parks have been reportedly out of service in record numbers at dozens of green spaces this summer – and parents are fuming.Parks officials recently lamented that the city is grappling with “dozens of sprinkler outages” and the department has “very few staff resources for repairs,” according to emails from the agency obtained by The Post.A whopping 668 calls have been made to the city Parks department about defective service at more than 250 locations since Memorial Day – the agency’s “target” date for when all of its spray showers should be up and running – marking a 40% increase in complaints compared to the same period last year.“When a spray shower has an issue, we make every effort to repair it as soon as possible,” a Parks spokesperson told The Post, adding that the “vast majority” of the water features are in operation.“The severe cold and snow we experienced this winter had an impact on the plumbing fixtures at certain sites.”Parks touting roughly a dozen or more outages since Memorial Day include Washington Square Park in Manhattan; Astoria Park and Dutch Kills Playground in Queens.At Mother Cabrini Park in Brooklyn, where winter weather damaged an underground water line and halted all spray functions, the Parks department has marked complaints as resolved — but parents say the water feature still hasn’t been repaired.“For families that aren’t putting their children in camps, they expect [splash pads] to be able to work for babysitters or stay-at-home parents,” Brooklyn mom Mikaela told The Post.

“At its most basic level, we’re talking about public health.”“This is a failure to meet basic needs,” argued fellow parent Jessica Setton.“To assume that everyone can just go to a beach or go to another park is unfair.”“Service requests for water fountain or sprinkler outages are closed after our...