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.
Two Toronto entrepreneurs say they have a solution to Iqaluit’s water supply needs: They’ll ship it in from Greenland. Fred Grootarz and Mark Albert want to use tankers to transport the water to Iqaluit’s port, where it would be stored year-round in electrically heated tanks. Albert calls the plan “a perfect fit” for Iqaluit.
The City of Iqaluit says its water treatment plant is to return to service Tuesday morning, more than a year after it was shut down due to contamination. The plant was initially shut down in October 2021 after fuel was detected in the city's water supply. A do-not-consume order was lifted in December of that year, but less than a week later it was discovered the water was contaminated by a tar-like substance.
Some people living in Iqaluit's Brown Row condo units haven't had water or sewage services for several weeks. It was caused by heating issues and a city water shutdown that left some residents with frozen pipes during the coldest time of the year. Jaban David, the Brown Row condo board's president, said there is extensive damage to the condo units as a result.
A third-party review into the emergency response to Iqaluit’s 2021 water crisis has started. It’s one of two reviews expected to stem from the fuel crisis that led to a public order not to consume Iqaluit’s water for a two-month period between October and December 2021. The Department of Community and Government Services has contracted consultation firm DPRA Canada Inc. to conduct the review. DPRA began its work in mid-December, according to the department.
The City of Iqaluit says it lost between six and 10 million litres of water over the past three days as crews worked to address problems with its piped water system. The city shut down all water services on Saturday while crews repaired the water line near the Astro Hill complex where a major leak had been reported early that morning. Water was restored for most of the city by Saturday night, while a medical boarding home was hooked back up to the system by Sunday afternoon.
Nunavut's health minister says one of the primary goals of a third-party review of the Iqaluit water crisis is to restore the public's confidence in the government. In an interview with CBC News, John Main committed to releasing as much information to the public as possible when the review is complete — although there's still no timeline for when such a review will even begin.
Nunavut's health department says it has not yet begun its third party review into last year's water crisis in Iqaluit. In October 2021, the city went nearly two months without clean tap water after hydrocarbons were detected in the city's water supply and ultimately traced to the water treatment plant. A "do not consume" order from territorial health officials was lifted in December, after a bypass had been set up at the plant.
One of the drivers of this trend is the Arctic warming effect, a phenomenon that occurs when sea ice and snow, which naturally reflect the sun's heat, melt into sea water. The water then absorbs more solar radiation and warms up. The consequences — longer ice-free seasons, unpredictable weather conditions and warmer waters — are felt at all levels of the Arctic ecosystem's food chain.
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.
Elgersma moved to the city in 1999 and began work as a lifeguard at the swimming pool at the Frobisher Inn, then worked her way up into youth programming and to director of recreation. In the four years Elgersma held the position as CAO, the city saw a number of disasters, like when Iqaluit's biggest store, Northmart, caught fire, and several water emergencies. "There's definitely been some some challenges," she said.
Nunavut's capital was able to avert a water-shortage crisis last week, but the member of Parliament for the territory says infrastructure in the North is an issue of Arctic security. Lori Idlout says federal investments in the North have often been inadequate to meet all of the infrastructure needs of communities and Ottawa tends to respond to emergencies rather than invest in long-term prevention.
The Nunavut government has declared a two-week state of emergency over a water shortage in Iqaluit. Joanna Quassa, the acting minister of community and government services, said Friday that it's meant to ensure the city can get necessary regulatory approvals to immediately begin replenishing its reservoir. "We are committed to working with the City of Iqaluit to ensure water levels will meet the needs of the residents of Iqaluit through the upcoming winter," Quassa said in a statement.
On Friday. the city Iqaluit declared state of emergency following a precarious water situation, writes Reuters. The city is located in the territory of Nunavut, in the far north in Canada. The water level in the local river Apex is historically low after a year of little rain, according to data from the last 40 years. Local authorities fear that there will not be enough water in the reservoir to supply the approximately 7800 inhabitants until winter when the river freezes over. The city is now seeking license to pump more water than normally allowed from the Apex river, as well as tapping an additional water source.
The city of Iqaluit is declaring a state of emergency due to historically low water levels caused by a lack of rain this summer. This moves the municipality one step closer to begin pumping water from a nearby lake, referred to as Unnamed Lake or Qikiqtalik Lake, to fill the water reservoir in Lake Geraldine ahead of freeze-up. The city still needs approval from the Nunavut Water Board before pumping can begin.
Pope Francis‘s upcoming visit to Canada’s Arctic territory of Nunavut draws attention to a focal point for global climate change, with sea ice disappearing fast and permafrost thawing. Francis, who arrives in the capital Iqaluit of predominantly Indigenous Nunavut on Friday, is in Canada to apologize in person for the Roman Catholic Church’s role in abuses that residential schools inflicted on Indigenous children.
Eight sea cans full of plastic bottles left over from Iqaluit’s water crisis last year will be sent for recycling to Montreal by the end of July. The water bottles were used in Nunavut’s capital last fall when fuel contamination in the municipal water supply prevented approximately 8,000 Iqalummiut from drinking tap water for two months.
Eight sea cans full of plastic water bottles are being sent from Iqaluit to Montreal for recycling at the end of July. Hundreds of thousands of bottles of water were flown into Iqaluit during the city's water crisis last fall. A fuel contamination in Iqaluit's water supply meant the city's approximately 8,000 residents were unable to drink the tap water for two months.
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.
People in Iqaluit can drink the tap water again, after being advised Friday the water was unsafe due to a "mechanical failure." That's according to a Monday public service announcement from the City of Iqaluit. No further details were offered on the nature of the mechanical failure that led to the advisory. The advisory was at least the third one this year, coming two months after one that stemmed from repairs to a water valve. Before that, the city issued a boil water advisory in January after it detected fuel in its water supply.
