On Day 9 of Calgary’s water supply crisis, the city’s mayor pleaded with residents to do more to conserve water and indicated if that does not happen, restricting the use of water indoors will become something that may be considered.
“I’m worried about our city and our surrounding municipalities,” Mayor Jyoti Gondek said as she delivered a brief on-camera statement on Friday morning. “If our water usage continues to trend up and our water supply can’t keep up, the taps will run dry at some point.
“We are facing an urgent crisis and I am standing here this morning with one message, and one message only: we must do better.”
Gondek was joined at her address by David Duckworth, the city’s chief administrative officer, and Airdrie Mayor Peter Brown. Airdrie is one of several southern Alberta municipalities also trying to reduce water consumption as a result of a massive water main break on a feeder main in northwest Calgary last week.
Work to repair the feeder main has resumed after an incident that resulted in workplace injuries prompted a work stoppage at the site on Wednesday night.
“This is not happening tomorrow — this fix,” Brown said on Friday as he too pleaded with residents to do more to cut back on their water use. “Let’s take the stress off the system. It’s a very simple ask.
“We are so fortunate to turn the tap on and have fresh, clean drinking water here in Canada. Lots of places around the world, they don’t have that opportunity.”
As a result of the break last week, Calgarians across the entire city were told to stop using water outdoors and do their best to minimize indoor water use. But on Friday, Gondek reiterated a message delivered earlier this week that more needs to be done to reduce water usage.
“If we can’t do our part on banding together, there may be some restrictions that come into place,” she said. “We don’t know what that looks like. I really don’t want to get to that stage.
“Right now we’re not restricting indoor water use, but we are providing you with suggestions and we are counting on your goodwill to reduce your indoor water use.”
More on Calgary
Gondek said water usage in Calgary has been trending up since Saturday.
“Two days ago we surpassed the sustainable threshold and today we are at that threshold,” she said, adding that Calgarians used 480 million litres of water on Thursday.
After repair work on the feeder main is complete, the city will still need several days for flushing and testing before Calgary’s water service can return to normal, officials have said. Gondek noted Friday that there is no projection for when the city could run out of water, just that it can happen if demand exceeds supply.
“Imagine what would happen if your neighbour down the street, the one who’s got a newborn (and is) looking to sanitize baby bottles, turned on the tap and nothing came out,” she said. “I want you to imagine a hospital looking to wash patient bedding and they had no water. You can imagine how catastrophic that would be. And imagine if a nurse or doctor in that same hospital couldn’t wash their hands to get in for surgery.
“Imagine if there was a house fire and the hydrants had no flow. These are all possible situations if we don’t cut back on our water use until the feeder main work is done.”
Gondek once again addressed concerns she’s heard from Calgarians about city crews seen watering green spaces and golf courses in the city. She said they are not using potable water and their actions do not threaten the city’s drinking water supply.
She also told Calgarians that indoor car washes are still allowed to operate because about 85 per cent of the water they use is recycled.
Gondek said the city has directly contacted 700 of Calgary’s “top commercial users” of water.
“They’re doing everything they can to reduce their water use,” she said, adding that about one out of three litres of water used in Calgary each day is used by commercial customers.
In recent days, Gondek has given multiple examples of how Calgarians can reduce water or make more use of the water they do consume. She suggested on Friday that Calgarians try to collect rainwater to use for things like watering flowers, where potable water is not required.
“Simple actions can go a long way,” Duckworth noted.
For the latest updates from the City of Calgary, you can follow the city’s social media channels or click on its website here.
For the latest Alberta Emergency Alerts, you can click on the province’s website here.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.