The water main break that forced the shutdown of Humber College’s north campus for an entire weekend has been fixed.
A spokesperson said the source of the break, which displaced around 1,000 students living in college residences, was fixed on Saturday. Kelly Jackson said water has been turned back on, allowing those students to return home Sunday evening, while the campus will reopen Monday morning.
“There was a valve that was located on top of one of the pipes, and it cracked,” said Jackson. With clean water necessary for everything from basic plumbing to food services, Jackson said workers continued to make preparations into Sunday.
Even though the college sent out emails and postings on social media warning about the closure, many students were still arriving on campus Sunday.
Harmeen Kur got an email from the college, but with an important third-party exam scheduled for Sunday, she still came to find out how it was going to be rescheduled. Instead of getting answers, Kur was turned away at the door of the student resource centre by a security guard.
“It’s really confusing and (the exam is) really important, and the rest of the provinces are having the exam,” said Kur.
With an exam on Monday, Humber student Rajdaap Singh also arrived looking to continue his test preparation. He was disappointed to find the closure notices didn’t get through to his phone.
“I didn’t get any email or any notification on my Blackboard app,” said Singh.
Jackson said the college apologizes to anyone who didn’t see the information.
“But we do our best to get that information out in a variety of different ways,” she said.
The only building that remained open throughout the campus was the Athletics Centre. Jackson said around 800 basketball players were already scheduled to play in a tournament over the weekend.
The Ontario Basketball Association was told it could continue to use the gyms, but with the caveat of no running water. Portable toilets were installed outside the building for the participants.