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Community rallies

Underground water line broke nearly two weeks ago

Christine Kay
Northern News Services

Resolute (Feb 17/03) - Without a water supply for nearly two weeks, Sarah Nungaq made do with what she had.

"I just let the dishes pile up for now and sometimes I just melt some snow to water my plants," explained Nungaq.

Her home is one of three or four buildings still without water since early February when an underground water line cracked. About 10 homes were without water although service has been restored to most. Most, but not all, of the community is served by utilidor and those with water were happy to help those without.

"People went over to a relatives or to the Qausuittuq Inns North if they had no water for showers or laundry," said Ralph Alexander, Resolute's senior administrator.

The hotel was more than happy to be of assistance to the community.

"It's a community hotel, a co-op owned hotel. The community can come in and use it any time.

So people even came in to get buckets of hot water so they could do their dishes," said hotel employee Heather Johnson.

It's impossible to tell how long it will take to restore water to all the homes but the crews are working as fast as they can.

The government of Nunavut provided some assistance to the hamlet by funding crews to fix the line.