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.
Half the population of St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, 30 kilometres southeast of Montreal, have been without drinking water since a major water main break at the beginning of the week. The city declared a local state of emergency on Wednesday. The water cutoff affected more than 26,000 residential, commercial and industrial addresses in the St-Luc and L’Acadie sectors as of Wednesday afternoon, as well as part of the St-Jean sector, all on the western side of the Richelieu River.
The annual pumpkin regatta in Windsor, N.S., that transforms giant gourds into personal vegetable crafts to be raced across a man-made lake has been cancelled indefinitely. Organizers of the Windsor-West Hants Pumpkin Festival made the announcement on Wednesday, citing a lack of water in the lake as the reason for the cancellation. "Lake Pisquid is dry right now and we haven't had a full regatta since 2018, so it just felt, in consultation with our committee, that the timing was right," Vanessa Roberts, the long-time logistics coordinator for the regatta, told Mainstreet from CBC Halifax.
California leads the world in production of processing tomatoes — the variety that gets canned and used in commercial kitchens to make some of the most popular foods. The problem is the worst drought in 1,200 years is forcing farmers to grapple with a water crisis that’s undermining the crop, threatening to further push up prices from salsa to spaghetti sauce.
Meanwhile, attendees at Kingston Music Festival in North York, Ont., posted videos over the weekend of concertgoers rushing toward the stage after pushing down the fence separating general admission and VIP sections. Some attendees complained of a lack of water at the venue in the midst of a heat wave. Representatives for Kingston Music Festival did not respond to requests for comment.
A new report from the think tank Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) suggests that climate change will exacerbate resource degradation and conflict in various parts of the world. Food insecurity, lack of water and the impact of natural disasters, combined with high population growth, are intensifying conflict and displacing people in vulnerable areas, according to the report’s findings.
In 1995, a highly-respected water expert in South Africa, Bill Pitman, in very concise terms illustrated that the country, already battling a growing lack of water then, would likely run out in 25 years if it did not increase its supply. Twenty-five years have now passed and the country is thirstier than ever. The recent water crisis in Cape Town is just one manifestation of the nation's chronic water scarcity. And there is likely more water trouble ahead. Water scarcity issues have been vexing experts for decades. Scientists developed and debated various water scarcity concepts, indicators, and projections, essentially saying that it is a global issue with strong local specifics. Worldwide estimates of people affected by water scarcity vary accordingly and get gloomier with time.
The lack of water in the Bear Creek Reservoir is eye-catching, but the city says there is no immediate risk associated with the lower than usual levels. City of Grande Prairie Development Engineer Michael Harvard says the city keeps the gates of the Muskoseepi Dam during the summer months open to ensure there is enough of a downstream flow. He says one potential issue stemming from the lack of upstream movement deals with the wildlife that calls the waterway home.
