The Nova Scotia government says it will be providing drinking water to 324 public schools starting in January, until it can conduct lead testing at all of them.
In a news release from the Department of Education Thursday, the province said the schools include 284 that have not yet been tested for lead and 40 schools that have been tested and require drinking water.
“We don’t want families to worry about the quality of drinking water in their schools,” Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Zach Churchill stated.
“Until we can resume testing in the spring, we will provide drinking water to schools that need it.”
The announcement comes after a groundbreaking national collaborative investigation that found elevated lead levels in Nova Scotia’s drinking water.
According to the provincial government, it will cost $1.7 million to provide water to the 324 schools. Eighty-six of its 370 schools have been tested so far, according to the departments, with 40 of those in need of drinking water.
The testing will be done by June, and the province is creating a public database that will store all water test results from all schools in the province.
The database will be in place by September.