Canada Faces Major Water Crisis

Aug. 23—In 1982, Lyndon H. LaRouche commissioned a pamphlet called “Won’t You Please Let Your Grandchildren Have a Drink of Fresh Water?” It cited the lack of a freshwater supply as humanity’s most serious crisis, next to the threat of nuclear war. Now, two generations later, our grandchildren have inherited both.

In Canada, the water infrastructure crisis has especially erupted, full-blown. In just the last few months:

Montreal: Over July 28-Aug. 17, 2024, some 150,000 residents of the city had to boil water during those three weeks, when a 50-year-old, 36-inch water main broke, causing massive damage. Some of Montreal’s water mains are 100 years old.

Calgary: In June 2024, the major Alberta city was cut off from half of its water supply after a water main break. It declared a state of emergency, rationing water use, and distributing bottled water en masse. The emergency lasted for about a month.

Vancouver: In June 2024, the British Columbia city of Vancouver experienced flooding after a sewer main broke in the Olympic Village built in 2010.

Toronto: In July 2024, Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s largest cities, experienced extreme flooding after very heavy rainfall. It brought up the question of whether Toronto and other cities had adequate drainage for extreme conditions.

Hamilton: In July 2024, Ontario port city of Hamilton, on the west edge of Lake Ontario, was ordered by Superior Court Judge Michael Gibson to pay a $3 million fine to National Steel Car, for failing to maintain a critical stormwater channel that has repeatedly overflowed. Hamilton has failed to maintain its water infrastructure for 23 years.

Warnings had been sounded about the crisis. Tricia Stadnyk, a civil engineering professor at the University of Calgary, told CBC News, last week, that the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering has been sounding the alarm about Canada’s water infrastructure for more than five years—ever since they released a report in 2019 assessing that 30% of the country’s water infrastructure was in fair, poor, or very poor condition. The most comprehensive study to date comes from the University of Utah: Released in late February 2024, “Water Main Break Rates in the U.S.A. and Canada: A Comprehensive Study,” a basic survey of 802 water utilities within 49 U.S. states and all 10 Canadian provinces. They found that nearly a half-million miles of water mains need replacement, at an estimated cost of $452 billion. One-third of the water mains in the U.S. and Canada, constituting some 770,000 miles, are more than 50 years old.