WC137 JulyAug 2024 - Magazine - Page 5
EDITOR’S NOTE
Water security not just a climate issue
PROJECTS l POLICY l INNOVATION
JULY/AUGUST 2024 • VOLUME 24, NUMBER 4
EDITOR
Toby Gorman
VICE PRESIDENT, CONTENT & PARTNERSHIPS
Corinne Lynds
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
John Tenpenny, Connie Vitello
ART DIRECTOR AND SENIOR DESIGNER
Gordon Alexander
CONTENT CONTRIBUTORS
Roxanne Nadeau, Adina-Cristina Georgescu,
Bita Malekian, Aditya Chaudhuri, Treena Hein,
Saul Chernos, David Lynch, Amanda Schrack,
Mark Douglas Wessel, Sumeep Bath, Monica Seidel
WATER CANADA ADVISORY BOARD
Stephen Braun, Melissa Dick, Gregary Ford,
Jon Grant, Robert Haller, Linda Li,
Michael Lywood, Eric Meliton, Ranin Nseir,
Terry Rees, Emily Stahl
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Sarah Wensley
PRESIDENT
Todd Latham
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Nick Krukowski
ADVISOR
James Sbrolla
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AT THE OWWA/WEAO conference in Niagara Falls in May, I sat in on a session
that left me wondering about the state of not only our water infrastructure, but how
all municipal infrastructure is interwoven. The crux of the session stated the easy
days of repairing and adding infrastructure are over. There is so much infrastructure
that engineers and contractors have to navigate a complex labyrinth when they work
underground. This adds to logistical issues, labour issues, time and budget issues…
the list goes on.
When there is a catastrophic failure of infrastructure like we saw in Calgary on
June 5, these complexities come into play, and the result is not only inconvenient,
it’s worrying. The entire city of Calgary was under Stage 4 water restrictions for three
weeks after an 11-kilometre long, two-metre wide watermain that provides 60 per
cent of the city with its potable water failed. As water poured out into the streets
causing further damage, engineers scrambled to locate the source of the failure, then
fix it.
“It will take as long as it takes,” one city official was quoted regarding a repair
timeline. For residents used to turning on the taps for cooking, cleaning, washing, and drinking, that is a worrying quote. But it also highlights the complexities
involved.
Calgary’s watermain failure isn’t unique. On April 3, 2020, 22 million litres of
water poured out of a failed Hyprescon pipe in Nanaimo, B.C. Installed in 1980,
the high-pressure concrete pipe was expected to have a lifespan of 80 years. The failure left a hospital and thousands of households temporarily without water. According to an analysis of watermain breaks in Canada by Concordia University, released
in April, age material, and diameter are key factors—no surprise there—but so are
pipe protection methods, quality of joints and fittings, soil types, and season.
Fortunately, in both cases the weather was mild. What if there had been a heat
wave? These failures are warnings that climate change and infrastructure challenges
could combine in the not-too-distant-future to create water scarcity in the most
modern of urbanized centres, places not synonymous with water scarcity issues.
It’s also a reminder of how we consume and use water in Canada. In Calgary,
it was noted that as a result of the watermain break, street sweeping, among other
things, would be halted. Yes, many cities in Canada use perfectly potable water to
clean our roads from winter grit. We also put out fires with treated water, among
other things. That is not responsible water use. These things can be done just as well
with treated wastewater.
There will be more failures in the future as infrastructure ages. How catastrophic
and expensive remain to be seen. But events like Calgary experienced serve as a reminder that water scarcity is not just a climate change issue, it’s an infrastructure and
water use issue as well that can be mitigated with proper management and foresight.
Toby Gorman is the editor of Water Canada. toby@actualmedia.ca
Water Canada gratefully acknowledges the financial support
received from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
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THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AVERSION TO TREATED WASTEWATER • DAYLIGHTING URBAN STREAMS • EDNA RAPID TESTING PROJECT
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