Calgary’s Water Crisis
All gardening and outdoor watering is prohibited and people are encouraged to avoid flushing the toilet, take less showers, and do less laundry and dishes. Schools have restricted the use of water fountains and rely on porta-potties, while gardeners are using rainwater and construction sites have been draining swimming pools for their needs.
“Much of the infrastructure in Canada was built in the 1960s and ‘70s”, Matti Siemiatycki, the director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto, told CBC's Front Burner Friday, “It should be a wake-up call that we need to have plans in place and that we need to have consistent long-term investment”
The cause of the crisis is a suspected "catastrophic" break in a feeder water main, though it has yet to be found. The affected water main is the Bearspaw South Feeder Main, which is highly critical as it moves water to both east and south parts of the city, said Nancy Mackay, the city's director of water services.
A broken water main in the Calgary neighbourhood of Montgomery on June 17 (Image: Global News)
The original timeline for the water crisis to be resolved was three to five weeks, including flushing, testing, and getting ready for network flow. Now, Michael Thompson, general manager of infrastructure services, says that the estimate is now “on the lower end,” or closer to three weeks.
Many complaints have been about the emergency, 7,246 through June 19, mostly relating to water misuse and fire ban infringements. There have been 574 written warnings and 723 verbal warnings given to individuals, with 3 violation tickets to corporations.
“We’re heading into a stretch of warm weather in the coming days and this will be our first test of summer-like weather with water restrictions,” said Calgary Emergency Management Agency acting chief Coby Duerr, urging everyone to respect water usage restrictions.
Sources / Further Reading:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/water-main-breaks-canada-1.7242389
https://globalnews.ca/news/10575517/calgary-water-supply-crisis-emergency-june-19/
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/it-can-happen-anywhere-calgary-mayor-commits-to-critical-look-at-w
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/northwest-calgary-watermain-road-closures-1.7226393
https://globalnews.ca/news/10569329/water-crisis-uncertainty-calgary-stampede/
