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.
A reserve in central Manitoba has access to clean drinking water after what the community says was almost two decades of trucking it in. On Oct. 29 this year, Nibi Envirotech finished installing a water filtration system, giving residents of Tootinaowaziibeeng Treaty Reserve — also known as Valley River First Nation — access to potable water.
Before Jennifer Steele and her husband moved into their home on Springfield Estates park in Middle Sackville, N.S., in 2013, they knew there was an issue with the water. She says she was told by someone else in the mobile home park that there was some "history" there. But it was affordable, she said. So they bought it.
In 2020, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation stopped filling the ponds with potable water in a bid to conserve water, implementing a bylaw that requires some water features, like ponds that do not recirculate water, be switched off. Now many ponds throughout the city are drying up or have completely dried up — to the disappointment of some residents, like Seear. The park board said it is focusing instead on restarting a handful of fountains it previously closed to save water.
A southwestern Manitoba First Nation is using $12 million in federal funding to ensure on-reserve members have access to potable water for generations to come. Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Marc Miller was in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, located 260 kilometres west of Winnipeg, Tuesday announcing $12 million in federal funding to help build water and wastewater system upgrades.
The Province is investing a total of $3.9 million in infrastructure upgrades in Mahone Bay, Yarmouth, Digby and Clare that will help prepare the municipalities for future growth. “Our municipalities depend on modern infrastructure to be competitive and attract new residents to their communities,” said Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister John Lohr. “By making these investments, we will improve the efficiency of the water and wastewater systems, ensuring residents and businesses have the services they expect and depend on every day and laying the foundation for continued growth for years to come.”
Tunisia will cut off water supplies to citizens for seven hours a night in response to the country's worst drought on record, state water distribution company SONEDE said in a statement on Friday. The country's agriculture ministry earlier introduced a quota system for potable water and banned its use in agriculture until Sept. 30, as the country battles with a drought that is now in its fourth year.
Complaints of a fuel-like smell coming from the water in this far-north Canadian city prompted do-not-consume orders in October 2021 and January 2022, limiting residents’ access to potable water and its hospital’s ability to sterilize equipment. A team of experts flown in from across Canada identified the sources of the petroleum hydrocarbon contamination and its path into the systems. Sending samples off to labs for testing was slow and costly due to the remote location and harsh winter, so the team worked with a local vendor to adapt existing technology to detect any contamination in real time along different points of the treatment process.
Today, the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities, welcomed the latest release of data on the status of Canada's water infrastructure through Canada's Core Public Infrastructure (CCPI) survey, for reference year 2020. The survey supports an evidence and results-based approach to public infrastructure policies, programs and investment decisions. The CCPI presents a statistically accurate and comprehensive landscape of public infrastructure in Canada. It provides communities across Canada with the tools and support they need to make evidence-based decisions for well-planned, modern public infrastructure that will help create healthier, safer and stronger communities.
The Halifax Regional Municipality is making drinking water available to people whose wells are going dry. Each household can receive two litres per person per day, plus one litre per day per pet, and residents can collect one week's supply at a time. Beginning Aug. 16, residents can get drinkable water at six different fire stations each Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., except station 38 and 42, which have different hours:
People living in Iqaluit are being reminded to conserve water as the city continues to deal with a water shortage that first reached emergency levels back in 2018. Amy Elgersma, Iqaluit's chief administrative officer, told Nipivut host Mary Oblibuk Tatty this past week that water levels at Lake Geraldine, the reservoir for the city's potable water, are lower than the city would like them to be. There are three reasons why, she said.
The governments of Canada and Prince Edward Island are providing joint funding for two community infrastructure projects to improve water and wastewater infrastructure in the Town of Cornwall, P.E.I. Funding will support the installation of 2,100 metres of new watermains, 18 new fire hydrants and new property services along Main Street. Several hundred metres of the new watermains will be used to expand the water distribution system and provide new services to 13 existing properties which is anticipated to provide increased access to potable water, improved water pressure and greater fire protection to the commercial areas of Main Street, indicates a release.
Canada might be a water-rich country, but that doesn't mean we don't have problems with water security. This week, we look at water issues in the most arid part of Canada, the Prairies, and see how climate change and city planning are both exacerbating the problem. Did you know during a recent storm the City of Winnipeg released 60 million litres of raw sewage into the Red River? Did you know the City of Morden, Manitoba almost ran out of potable water during the extreme drought last summer?
Because wetlands remain waterlogged year-round, plant matter in the soil is slow to decompose, making them globally important carbon sinks. However, the role of mountain wetlands in storing and releasing water and carbon is not well understood. Climate is changing more quickly in mountain regions which may be profoundly changing their ability to store carbon and water. Dr. Somers and her team aim to develop a new understanding of mountain wetlands to determine how best to manage or restore these important landscapes in the face of climate and land use change and to maximize their capacity to supply potable water and absorb atmospheric carbon.
Desalination is seen as a path forward to ensuring coastal communities have a steady supply of clean drinking water as populations expand. Historically, desalination projects have struggled to scale widely, as the high amount of energy required to remove salt from ocean water creates costs and damages sustainability. A Quebec, Canada firm has developed a product to address the energy and environmental concerns of desalination by making a modular, floating buoy that harnesses the power of the sun and waves to turn ocean water into drinkable water. Oneka builds a self-contained, solar-topped device that also harnesses tidal power. The two energy sources allow the buoy to draw ocean water in through reverse osmosis, and then convert it to drinkable water.
SAINT-HILAIRE N.B.—Through the Green Infrastructure Stream (GIS), the Government of Canada is investing over $2.2 million to upgrade the water supply infrastructure in two rural communities in New Brunswick. The Village of Saint-Hilaire will benefit from increased access to potable water by drilling three to four exploratory wells, constructing one to three new wells and excavating the land in order to connect the new wells to an existing pumping station, indicates a release, adding once completed, the project will allow the community to meet water consumption demands and help remove a boil water advisory.
From roads and buildings, to water systems – strong infrastructure is key to building stronger communities. Investments in safer and more efficient water services helps keep our communities healthy, green and sustainable. That is why the Government of Canada is investing over $2.2 million to upgrade the water supply infrastructure in two rural New Brunswick communities through the Green Infrastructure Stream (GIS). As Canada moves toward a strong recovery, these projects will help communities remain great places to live, work and play, and ensure long-term infrastructure performance.
Calls are mounting in Nunavut for the territorial government to call a public inquiry into the Iqaluit water crisis. The city of nearly 8,000 went for two months without clean tap water last fall after hydrocarbons were detected in the water and ultimately traced to the city's water treatment plant. The do not consume order was lifted in December, after a bypass had been set up at the plant, only to result in a boil water advisory that lasted nine days earlier this month, as residents again reported the smell of fuel in the water.
Residents of Hitac̓u, the heart of the Ucluelet First Nation, have been told not to drink, bathe in, or even clean with the water coming out of their taps. Water in the community goes on a return journey to become drinkable — it travels from Hitac̓u across the Ucluelet Inlet to the District of Ucluelet, where it is processed and then flows back to Hitac̓u as potable water. But the submerged water line it travels in is was hit and damaged by a barge on Monday.
The Town of Westlock is banking on an $80,000 water distribution leak detection system to curtail the $270,000-plus it spent this year on water that never made it to residents’ taps. In 2021, the town lost 20 per cent of all the potable water it paid for from the regional water commission — $276,270 that, in essence, flowed into the ground. In a Dec. 20 interview, CAO Simone Wiley said the 20 per cent figure is an overall number, which counts everything from line leaks and breaks, to fighting fires and flushing hydrants — any water that isn’t metered. For example, the loss percentage spiked at 27.9 in January 2021 due to a handful of water main breaks and the massive Commerce Building fire, but sat at only 15 per cent in July.
BluMetric Environmental Inc. (TSXV: BLM) is committed to providing clean drinking water in emergency situations. On October 12, 2021, Iqaluit declared a state of emergency due to its contaminated water supply. The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) responded on October 23, 2021, by deploying mobile water purification units that were designed and built by BluMetric. These units were successful in providing potable water to local residents. BluMetric's emergency water treatment solution is designed to be deployed in the harshest of environments. It is proven to remove carbon, biological, radioactive and nuclear contaminants and 99.9 per cent of all bacteria and viruses. The treatment system operates within a 20-foot container and is truck, rail, and air portable.
