Edzo residents have gone weeks with brown water, frozen water lines

Residents in Edzo, N.W.T., have been struggling with disruptions to their piped water delivery after aging equipment broke down last month, and Tłı̨chǫ leaders say the community government can't pay for sustainable repairs alone. 

"Our communities are showing the wear and tear of the old infrastructure," said Behchokǫ̀ Chief Clifford Daniels. Behchokǫ̀ includes the communities of Rae and Edzo.

A pump failed on Jan. 21, and for the last two weeks the community has been working to bring in replacement parts and thaw lines that froze when Edzo's reservoir ran out. 

Edzo pulls water from the West Channel into an intake pump house, which is piped out to the community. When water levels are low, water must be trucked in from Behchokǫ̀.

This week, workers restored water for many residents, but are still thawing out water lines and repairing those lines that have burst underground. 

Cold weather and COVID-19 only made the water problem harder to solve, Daniels said.

For residents, "it's been a tough couple of weeks," he said.

Some residents have been using honey buckets — bucket toilets that need to be emptied  — because they had no running water or sewer, Daniels said.

Paul Gentleman has lived in Edzo for 14 years and owns a home that uses piped water.

He's considering paying an estimated $30,000 out of pocket to move to a tanked system, and other residents are weighing that option too. 

When the reservoir was depleted, residents were getting water that was "rusty, brown, silty in appearance and texture," said Gentleman.

Gentleman has personally been out of water for eight days, but said some residents have not had water or sewer service for almost a month, or have had low-pressure and brown water. 

Some households had their sewage back up too, he said.

Residents are relying on neighbours to bathe and wash their clothes and some households are using honey buckets, he said.