Winnipeg not as susceptible to mass water outage experienced in Calgary

The City of Winnipeg says a mass water outage similar to what’s happening in Calgary forcing residents to preserve water is unlikely, but stresses plans are in place if such a scenario were to unfold in the city. 

Tim Shanks, Director of Winnipeg’s Water and Waste Department, says the system is different than Calgary’s — in the sense, major parts can be taken off-line and bypassed without notice — stressing the inspection schedules in Winnipeg are long-standing and proactive, and with water consumption dropping consistently since the 90s’ he’s says the city has been given a bit more breathing space. 

“The overall consumption, essentially declining, or flatlining right now, really gives us a lot of room capacity wise, it gives us a lot of time to make more informed decisions for long-term financing,” said Shanks.

He says Winnipeg has been helping Calgary with information gathering and says situations like this show the masses how complex these systems are. 

“Because these systems work so well, a lot of people forget that they’re there, and forget the amount of work and effort there is in maintaining them,” said Shanks. 

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With municipalities dealing with costly, aging infrastructure, Monica Emelko, Canada Research Chair in Water Science, Technology and Policy, says the situation in Calgary — which she says is a leader in the field — should have municipalities honing discussions on innovative water delivery and water treatment.

“If you don’t have safe water and if you don’t have access to it – and if you don’t have a plan to enable basic hygiene and sanitation – you can count the days before people get sick,” said Emelko. 

Emelko says this is why it’s critical that government budgets have adequate funding for technology and monitoring, both of infrastructure and water sources. And here in Winnipeg, Shanks, says resilience is “very important” to him both on a professional and personal level. 

“So we need to stay on top of the demand management side of things, the watershed protection kind of things, and every litre counts, right? So, even though we’re not in that scarcity situation right now, it doesn’t mean that we couldn’t be at some point in the far future.”