Iqaluit (Mar 01/04) - Stan Purves has a new appreciation for running water and he has some advice for Iqaluit City Hall: communicate better with residents during emergencies.

His was one of 300 homes in the 2000 block to lose water service Feb. 17 when a water main broke.

City crews worked until 4 a.m. Feb. 19 to restore service to most of the homes, but some, including Purves', didn't get water until last Monday.

Once the line was repaired, the city discovered some pipes had frozen, causing a block in the system.

"It was one thing after another," said Purves.

"It was an inconvenience but there was nothing we could do about it," he said. "I could get angry and frustrated or I could just deal with it. I chose to deal with it."

Now that the problem is fixed, Purves said one thing the city needs is to work more closely with residents.

"I don't think the communication was there," he said. "The emergency measures could have also been brought here a little quicker."

City fixes problem

When the break first happened the city didn't know the extent of the problem.

Mark Hall, director of public works said this was probably the worst problem the city has seen.

"We're calling this the big one," he said.

The biggest struggle city workers faced was just getting to the pipe through the frozen ground.

The city was able to replace the broken pipe, but before water could be restored the city had to super chlorinate the pipes to make sure there is no bacteria.

For most of last week, residents were ordered to boil water.

Although the problem took longer to fix then the city expected, Hall said he is proud of the crews, who worked almost non-stop.

This summer the city plans to examine the utilidor system to make sure this problem never happens again.