The Halifax regional council will officially ask the province to buy a group of flood-prone Bedford properties. On Tuesday, council approved a motion from Bedford-Wentworth Coun. Tim Outhit to have Mayor Mike Savage write to Premier Tim Houston and ask for a provincial buyout program for Union Street properties damaged during July's extreme flooding. Outhit said these homes, which are all in a flood plain, are ones he's visited many times over the years as they've been damaged again and again by water.
Halifax Water says supply remains safe, as wildfire burns near facility
Halifax Water says its water supply remains safe as a wildfire burns just a few kilometres away from one of its large watersheds. The utility operates a pumping station and water treatment facility at Pockwock Lake, which supplies water to the Lower Sackville, Bedford and Halifax areas. That facility sits just northwest of where the fire is burning, and is located inside an emergency zone. "We are checking water samples, including additional water samples, to make sure the quality of the water stays consistently safe," Jeff Myrick, the utility's communications manager, told CBC Radio's Mainstreet Nova Scotia on Wednesday.
Bedford, N.S. woman’s water purification system to launch pilot project in Africa
A new Halifax-based organization has developed a cost-effective water purification system and will be launching a pilot project in the Gambia and Kenya. Founded by 20-year-old Rachel Brouwer, The Purification Project will bring water purification systems to vulnerable Kenyan and Gambian communities living without access to safe water. When Brouwer was 11 years old, she realized not everyone in the world had access to clean drinking water after reading a sign on a hiking trip that read, “Caution, do not drink. The water source is contaminated.”