Patients at D.C.’s St. Elizabeths Hospital have endured five on-campus water-main breaks this winter, including one that knocked out water to the entire campus for eight hours and forced facility administrators to bring in portable toilets.

The infrastructure beneath the century-old psychiatric hospital in Southeast is failing more frequently this year, nearly tapping out the hospital’s maintenance contingency fund for fiscal 2008, said Patrick Canavan, St. Elizabeths’ chief operating officer.