Iqaluit's 'Waterless Wednesdays' won't return anytime soon, says committee
Data presented shows switching to six-day delivery schedule caused major issues for 25 homes
Iqaluit's so-called "Waterless Wednesdays" won't be coming back anytime soon.
That was the message from the city's public works committee, which met last night to discuss the controversial policy of not delivering water to homes and business on trucked services on Wednesdays.
The policy, which was unilaterally brought into effect by the city administration last year, was suspended after a city council vote on April 27. Wednesday's meeting saw city administration present data for the first time, showing how the six-day service compared to last year's seven-day delivery schedule.
"By removing one day from the service schedule, it essentially forces the system to be more efficient," said Matthew Hamp, the city's director of engineering and public works. "Ideally, you would want to deliver as much as possible on one delivery and have each resident use as much as possible of their tank before you have to fill it up... and we are seeing that in these numbers."
Hamp presented data which showed a decrease in the average number of deliveries per home per week — from five to four — along with an increase in the average volume per delivery, from 443 litres to 630 litres.
That increased efficiency, said Hamp, corresponded with a modest savings of $10,000 in salaries over the last seven months. In 2015, Iqaluit's Water and Sewer Fund accrued a deficit of $648,830 dollars, making it the only city fund to add to the deficit.
In the data presented, the city estimated that 25 homes had struggled with the lack of water delivery one day a week. Hamp said the families struggled because their water tanks were smaller than average, and they consumed higher than average amounts of water.
Councillor Romeyn Stevenson asked Hamp if the high levels of consumption were due to overcrowding, but Hamp said he couldn't glean the answer from the data the city had gathered.
Ultimately, the committee decided it would not recommend a return to no trucked water delivery on Wednesdays — or any other restrictions on water delivery — until further public outreach was done and a plan was made to assist the 25 most affected homes.
"Every dollar that is saved is worth it," said councillor Kuthula Matshazi. "But the flip side, as I have always argued, is that we need to make sure everyone has got [access to] water."