Water and sewage problems strain lives in Edzo as families wait for relief
CBC
Kelsey Mantla is still afraid to drink her tap water in Edzo, N.W.T., where water and sewer failures have been plaguing residents for weeks. Brown water has poured from the taps and underground pipes have burst, forcing some community members to rely on neighbours and family for basic sanitation.
"We couldn't use the bathroom or anything. My kids would cry and the house stunk," said Mantla, whose house was flooded by a backed-up sewer.
On Jan. 21, a water pump failed in the 200-person Tłı̨chǫ community of Edzo and many buried lines burst, taking out some residents' water for a month. Mantla lives in one of about 50 homes that had no water, or brown water, as a result.
Raw sewage backed up out of Mantla's toilet and bathtub, and ran underneath her floorboards, which she must now replace.
"We noticed that our bathtub and toilet started flooding and whatever we flushed through the toilet came up … we started having poop come up from the bathtub," she said.
"I tried to scoop it to make it lower but it kept rising and rising," said Mantla, pointing to areas of her bathroom, living room and kitchen that were flooded by the sewer back up.
"It was so gross. It was really frustrating. I couldn't even focus," she said.
Mantla, a mother of four, says even with the water back on, she and her partner will not drink, bathe or cook with their tap water.
Mantla said that with active COVID-19 cases in the territory, moving into another person's home temporarily was not an option for her and her family.
Like Mantla, Ericson Sanguez has been hauling extra water every few days, sometimes driving from Edzo to Yellowknife, so his family has adequate water for cooking, drinking and bathing.
"It's kind of a pain, but we're getting by. We have a young baby. We've been having to use water bottles distributed by the community government to bathe our young son and do dishes," he said.
On Tuesday, workers demolished his fence and dug up his yard to get at the burst pipes as water gushed around them.
Sanguez said he was grateful the community government was footing the bill for the urgent repairs, and that working on gushing pipes in -35 C is no easy feat.
He is one of the last residents to have his water restored.
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