Bad luck and Mother Nature
Water runs low, sewage high in Naujaat this past week
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
NAUJAAT
A string of rough weather and equipment failure combined to have many people facing problems with their water and sewage in Naujaat this past week.
Senior administrative officer Rob Hedley puts in some extra hours on the job when bad weather and equipment failure combine to leave homes with no water and full sewage tanks in Naujaat this past week. - NNSL file photo |
Hamlet SAO Rob Hedley said Naujaat had a new water-fill station come online during the past few months, with the old station set to be decommissioned.
He said problems began on Jan. 30 when there was a failure with one of the pipes in the new unit, which followed a couple of days with weather bad enough to keep the hamlet's water and sewage trucks off of the road.
"We were a little bit behind as it was due to the bad weather, and when the unit first went down I couldn't get a time frame from Community and Government Services as to how long it would take to fix," said Hedley.
"Then we were told we couldn't use the old station, even though it hasn't been fully decommissioned yet and we had previously been told we could use it if needed.
"Eventually, after discussing it half the day, we were told we could use the old one at about 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 30.
"We planned to run the trucks as late as we could, but the weather started getting crappy again."
Hedley said the trucks ran until about 8 p.m. when a blizzard came in.
He said full-water service wasn't restored until about 3 p.m. on Feb. 1, when he was able to get the heavy equipment back on the road.
"As of the afternoon of Feb. 2 we were pretty much back on schedule.
"By that time people were running out, are had run out, of water and their sewage tanks were full.
"In fact, a lot of people were out of water on Feb. 1 and waiting for us to get the trucks back on the road.
"It wasn't fun, but people were patient until we got everything back up to speed."
Hedley said the new station became operational again on Feb. 2.
He said it was a confluence of unavoidable events that led to a few uncomfortable days for the community.
"It's hard during a blizzard when you're water is running out, or your sewage tank is filling up, and you don't know when a truck is going to reach your home.
"That's the real weakness of a water-and-sewage-truck system when something like this happens, with bad weather combining with a mechanical failure.
"That puts everything behind, and you have to wait until you can get your heavy equipment out to deal with the accumulated snow and ice before the trucks can hit the road.
"I can't have people out there when the visibility is lousy, or when there's snow accumulation to the point where the heavy equipment can't get around properly, because you only risk having someone hurt or worse by being stubborn."
