Bottled water available in Pangnirtung as water emergency continues
Delivery trucks being filled directly from river, GN issues boil-water advisory as a safety measure
A water truck delivers supplies to residents in Pangnirtung in this file photo from 2023. The community is currently under a state of emergency after a loss of service at its water treatment plant. Residents are under a boil-water advisory and are asked to conserve water until service is fully restored. (File photo by Corey Larocque)
Bottled water is being made available to Pangnirtung residents as the community remains under a state of emergency after the shutdown of its water treatment plant Thursday.
Bottled water pickup is taking place at the community centre, limited to one case per household for now so that supplies can be shared fairly, the Hamlet of Pangnirtung announced Friday around 3 p.m.
The Baffin Island community of about 1,500 has been without regular water service since Thursday morning, when the hamlet reported a “complete loss” at the plant. A cause has not yet been confirmed.
Nunatsiaq News requested additional information from the hamlet office, but officials said they were not able to comment Friday.
A charter flight delivered four pallets of bottled water to Pangnirtung on Thursday night. The hamlet did not identify the source of the water when it announced the flight that night.
A water treatment plant engineer is expected to arrive to assess the problem, but no repair timeline has been provided, the hamlet’s announcement said.
Water delivery was expected to resume Friday afternoon, with water trucks being filled directly from the river while repair work continued at the treatment plant.
Because the supply is being manually chlorinated at higher-than-usual levels, as a safety precaution, the Health Department issued a boil water advisory.
Residents are being asked to bring all water for consumption to a rolling boil for at least one minute.
The advisory applies to water used for drinking, cooking, preparing infant formula, making juice or ice, washing fruits and vegetables, and brushing teeth.
Nunavut Emergency Management said in a statement on Thursday it was supporting the hamlet’s response and working to co-ordinate shipments of bottled water and stainless-steel pumps for the hamlet to use to draw water directly from the community’s reservoir.
Pangnirtung first issued a water conservation notice Wednesday evening, advising that pipe problems at the treatment plant prevented water trucks from being filled.
That was followed Thursday by the declaration of a state of emergency, which triggered bottled water shipments by charter flight.
The hamlet is urging residents to continue conserving what water they have at home until the situation is resolved.
I find it incredible that in a place like Nunavut where there is abundance of clean fresh water that in the communities you have to boil your drinking water, our capital the water smells and taste like chemicals, all the rivers and lakes with clean drinking water but the infrastructure is like third world in one of the richest countries in the world, crazy it is the way it is.
I recently visited Nuuk in August for some business trips, our partners invited us over for dinner and watching them fill a glass jug for our drinking water straight from the tab and the water had no smell or taste of chemicals but just pure clean water from the tab, living in Iqaluit for a few years and knowing how are water issues have been this experience added a question make to why we cannot have the same infrastructure with clean clear water from our tap. How can it work so well in one place yet not work as well in another place. This was an eye opener on many levels not just with our water, how far we yet have to go in Nunavut.