Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
Nova Scotia Health says it will pause testing water for chemicals in the province's central zone beginning Monday due to a worldwide shortage of an unnamed chemical component used in the testing. The health authority said it will reassess the situation in three to four weeks. According to the province, more than 40 per cent of Nova Scotia households get their drinking water from wells. It encourages regular testing.
The government of Newfoundland and Labrador is relaxing its relocation assistance requirements for residents of Mud Lake who want to move over fears of future flooding. The central Labrador community was hit hard in 2017 when flooding of the Churchill River destroyed properties and forced people from their homes. Some blamed the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project for the flood — a class-action suit making its way through the court system is seeking damages from Crown corporation Nalcor Energy — but an independent report in 2017 determined natural causes were likely to blame, concluding that ice blocked the river's mouth, forcing water over the banks.
Starting this month, over 2,500 Detroit residents will see lower water rates as a new affordability plan takes effect, the Detroit Free Press reports. The plan offers low-income residents a fixed monthly water rate, calculated based on a resident’s income and water usage. Four thousand more households are on the program’s waiting list. This month also sees a new rate structure in Detroit, which lowered most water bills by $2. The city’s moratorium on water shutoffs, enacted more than two years ago, is set to expire at the end of 2022, though officials say that households enrolled in the affordability program will not be affected.
Just two hours outside Toronto, more than 2,000 households on Six Nations of the Grand River live without a basic human right: clean water. Some residents can’t simply fill up a glass at their taps and drink, take a shower, or bathe their children without worrying about the water being contaminated. “We’re doing our best to progress our community as best as we can. But there comes challenges,” said Chief Mark Hill. “One of those challenges is the access to clean drinking water, potable water.”
Newmarket is moving into the second phase of its mandatory water meter replacement program. The new digital infrastructure will provide residents and the town better access to data to allow for the future ability to track and monitor usage and identify leaks and losses before they become a larger issue, the town said in a statement. The first phase began in March 2021 and upgraded water meters for about 7,000 households. The second phase of the program will replace water meters for about 18,000 homes.
Another attempt to put a rebate program in place for all low-income households in Regina has failed thanks to a tie vote at executive committee this week. “I’m very frustrated,” Coun. Andrew Stevens (Ward 3) said in an interview Thursday. “It’s going to be increasingly more difficult for us to have credibility when it comes to community wellness, to talk about poverty, anti-poverty initiatives, when we decided on several occasions not to use the levers at our disposal to address these concerns.”
Water scarcity in rural Alaska is not a new problem, but the situation is getting worse with climate change. Lasting solutions must encourage the use of alternative water supplies like rainwater catchment and grey water recycling. They must also address the affordability of water related to household income, say researchers from McGill University. Washing hands with clean water is something most people take for granted, yet for Alaska's rural residents, this is often not the case. When people pay for water by the gallon, serious thought is given to how much is used – even during the COVID-19 pandemic.
