REGINA – More than one hundred homes have gone without water at some point this season due a frozen water line on city property.
Most are repaired within a couple of days, or a week at the most, but one Regina family had to wait close to three weeks for crews to come out.
“How much longer am I suppose to wait?” said Toni Provost. “You can’t function in a house with kids, laundry, dishes, food, cooking. I mean everything. You just can’t function. Period.”
However, Provost considers her family lucky as the Regina Housing Authority connected her home with water from her neighbour’s house.
“They (the neighbours) were nice enough to do that but at any time they could turn around and say ‘you know what, it’s been three weeks. We’re not going to supply your house with water anymore’ and then what?” asked Provost.
The extreme cold, coupled with minimal snow pack, has made it a challenging season for the city.
“On an average year, we’ll have about five frozen surfaces,” said John Ullrich, City of Regina’s manager of water and sewer construction. “This year we’re well over a hundred. So we’re well over 20 times a normal year.”
On Thursday alone, 13 homes in Regina were without water due to frozen pipes on the city’s side.
“We have contractors working on those, we have city forces working on those, we’ve hired exterior casual employees and have employees from other sections,” said Ullrich.
Yet, the deep freeze has made it difficult for city crews to keep up and Provost is disappointed her situation didn’t seem to be a concern.
“I phoned back the city, two weeks later after the initial request was made, and I talked to a gentleman and he said, sorry there was no request,” said Provost.
When Global News asked the city about Provost’s house, they confirmed it wasn’t on their radar but within a couple of hours of bringing the story to the city’s attention, crews were on scene.
The city apologizes for the delay and acknowledges there was miscommunication.
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