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.
To give residents easy access to drinking water this summer, the City of Ottawa has installed a water fountain in the city's Chinatown neighbourhood that attaches to a fire hydrant much like a fire hose. Ottawa's water services department noticed during last summer's heat waves in western Canada people loved having drinking fountains and misting stations run off the cities' fire hydrants — so in the fall, they decided to recreate the idea here.
