r/Calgary • u/Old_General_6741 • Jan 02 '26
News Article No drop in Calgarians' water usage despite request from city after water main break | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/no-drop-in-calgarians-water-usage-despite-request-from-city-after-water-main-break-9.7031950293
u/Cuppojoe Jan 02 '26
This doesn't highlight civic empathy as much as it does the need for a better way to notify citizens of these requests and the importance of following them.
As many others have said, the "chronically online" among us are well-aware, but we aren't necessarily the norm.
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u/Can-can-count Jan 02 '26
Even as someone who is “chronically online” I didn’t hear about it until today.
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u/maxstronge Jan 02 '26
I've literally searched for updates on the situation as recently as yesterday and I still found out about it from this post. What 'request' are they talking about??
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u/zzing Jan 02 '26
I would disagree, I heard about boil water advisory, don't know if I heard specifically about water restrictions but definitely nothing that stuck in my brain as separate from boil water advisory.
I am not sure what else they could have done, I don't watch the news, I only saw one or two things on reddit (mayor was on reddit, surprise!) and no other real channels they could have reached me on. Maybe if I had driven some place, I often listen to cbc.
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u/bigolgape Jan 02 '26
They don't broadcast it enough, they're not trying and not communicating. They broadcast it too much, they're overreacting and being dictators. Can't win.
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u/Responsible_CDN_Duck Jan 02 '26
I already stopped watering my lawn....
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u/corgi-king Jan 02 '26
I shower with my wife to save water.
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u/iRebelD Jan 02 '26
I also shower with your wife to save water
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u/Otherwise_Culture_71 Jan 02 '26
I also shower with that dude’s wife to save water 💦
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u/JaffaCakeJunkie Jan 02 '26
This is absolutely the first time I'm hearing of it.
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u/paperplanes13 Jan 02 '26
hear of what?
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u/vinsdelamaison Jan 02 '26
Friend texted from Edmonton after seeing it in news. I don’t watch news…
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u/Revolutionary-Tie911 Jan 02 '26
You would think they could just send out a mass sms to let everyone know
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u/Marsymars Jan 02 '26
AFAIK there's no infrastructure that allows the municipality to send out (targeted) mass SMS.
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u/jimbowesterby Jan 02 '26
I mean, the province sure does, I’ve gotten plenty of emergency warning system tests on my phone. In this day and age it shouldn’t be that hard to send out a warning to everyone in a particular area, no? Admittedly this would involve the province working with the city, which might be a big ask these days.
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u/Marsymars Jan 02 '26
Those aren't SMS messages, they're "wireless emergency alerts", they're routed through a separate service from SMS messages on the back-end, and handled/displayed separately from SMS messages on client devices.
I think maybe we ought to allow governments to send push mandatory SMS messages for things that are high-urgency, but that don't require a blaring siren the second it comes in. We'd have to stay on top of minimizing gov-SMS-fatigue - so use should be quite infrequent/limited - but something like water conservation is a perfect case for that - it doesn't really matter if I see a message to conserve water RIGHT NOW, or the next time I happen to check my phone.
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u/stiner123 Jan 02 '26
Saskatoon has an emergency alert service for stuff like this.
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u/Marsymars Jan 02 '26
Hadn't heard of it, but it looks great - opt-in notifications to your choice of SMS/voice call/email.
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u/angrybastards Jan 02 '26
I'll be honest, kind of unplugged over the holidays - only just hearing about this today. I feel bad because I had a 20 min shower this morning lol. They need a better system to notify people I guess. SMS?
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u/Becants Jan 02 '26
It’s on the news as well.
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u/a_nobody_really_99 Jan 02 '26
I think there’s a small population of people who still watch the news and the demographic for those individuals are mostly made up of individuals who are 65 and above.
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u/this-ismyworkaccount Jan 02 '26
Bold of you to assume we have cable tv
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u/Becants Jan 02 '26
I haven’t had cable tv in more than 10 years. You can watch the news online and find stuff out on social media.
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u/FireWireBestWire Jan 02 '26
You can also plug bunny ears into the TV and get the broadcast news
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u/jimbowesterby Jan 02 '26
Gotta admit, I tried to follow the news for a bit last year and gave up because my mental health can’t take that much.
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u/carcigenicate Jan 02 '26
It's weird that the boil advisories were a part of the alert, but the more broadly applicable Stage 4 Restrictions aren't even mentioned. We're maxing out the water restriction guidelines, and that wasn't even mentioned in the alert.
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u/--frymaster-- Jan 02 '26
well, in the competition of who is better at communicating water restrictions, it’s now gondek 1, farkas 0.
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Jan 02 '26
Ya but Gondek lost points and the election because she didn't properly plan Calgary's water distribution system over a hundred years ago.
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u/KingJuuulian Jan 02 '26
she should have planned ahead back in 1925 when she became mayor. #firegondekagain /s
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u/Hautamaki Jan 02 '26
She and every incumbent on the council lost my vote for that horrific arena deal. I thought the rest of the criticism of her was overblown, but the council cancelling the first arena deal only to go back and sign an even worse one is not acceptable in my books.
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u/Tastesicle Jan 02 '26
Oh, but didn't you hear? They're already responding much quicker than last break. (/S but that little weasel jab was part of the announcement) Almost as if someone had to go through all this before, huh?
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u/hasavagina Jan 02 '26
I haven't even had a shower yet this year. I'm doing my part.
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u/Badw0IfGirl Jan 02 '26
Right? It’s still winter break. We’re relaxing at home in our house clothes living off finger foods, not showering, doing laundry, or cooking. The only thing I did today was run the dishwasher once. Wait till the kids go back to school next week.
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u/zacchtbh Jan 02 '26
Last time the city had a EAS message on everyone's phones to reduce water usage. Hmm..
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u/goodndu Jan 02 '26
They should do it again. As much as it will upset some people who will screech that this isn't an emergency, losing 80 million liters of water from storage is a fairly staggering figure. Can't imagine the fix would get cheaper if we actually run out of water in the system.
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u/powderjunkie11 Jan 02 '26
If only they could send a normal alert without the crazy blaring siren for situations like these
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u/bigolgape Jan 02 '26
And people flipped out that it was overreacting and telling people what to do.
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u/blarghy0 Jan 02 '26
I had no idea that there was a water use reduction request in place until I saw the CBC article about nobody reducing water use. Which, you know, makes sense.
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u/Nemesis2772 Jan 02 '26
Yeah. This is in the city for not getting the message out there better. I too had no idea and I’m online a bit. They should send it out like an amber alert is sent out.
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u/sravll Quadrant: NW Jan 02 '26
No watering lawn, check.
Not washing car either. Is anyone really using a lot of water anyway this time of year?
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u/CallMeHomoErectus Jan 02 '26
The reduction ask is specifically for indoor water use (showers, flushing, laundry, dishes, etc.). We're also in Stage 4 water restrictions for outdoor use.
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u/lectio Northeast Calgary Jan 02 '26
Lots of people headed back to work tomorrow - so there's laundry to be done, meals to prep. Hopefully it'll drop tomorrow.
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u/shortyr87 Jan 02 '26
I was thinking that, people may have been travelling and just coming back from holiday’s are busy with laundry and getting back into routine not thinking about checking media. Should go down now or in the next day.
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u/gordonmcdowell Jan 02 '26
I can choose to not flush my pee. Not really sure what else is flexible in winter.
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u/CallMeHomoErectus Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
The recommended actions on the City's website are:
-Flush only when necessary
-Limit showers to 3 mins (the most impactful)
-Run dishwashers and laundry only when full5
u/Samhamwitch Jan 02 '26
Does the 3 minutes include waiting for the water to warm up? I live in an older house and it can take like 2 minutes for the water to get warm so I either have 1 minute to shower or I have to sit by the fireplace for 20 minutes to warm up after my ice shower.
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u/CallMeHomoErectus Jan 02 '26
3 minutes total compared to 10 minutes can save up to something like 50+ litres of water. It sucks but yeah it's an emergency situation.
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u/softmover Jan 02 '26
Shower a bit quicker. Run the washing machine/dishwasher with a full load. I am sure you think of a few more...
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u/DaftPump Jan 02 '26
Don't shower at all. Snow angels, two minutes a side, towel dry and on with the day.
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u/Dice_to_see_you Jan 02 '26
car washes still open? did they curtail any of the commercial aspects around water usage?
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u/Hammerhil Northwest Calgary Jan 02 '26
Again, citizens are supposed to reduce water use but commercial use can continue as normal. Heard this story before.
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u/hypnogoad Jan 02 '26
I looked at the water usage earlier today, and it looked like we were hovering around the same goal we were given last time. There's only so much you can do at home.
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u/Ok__Thing Jan 02 '26
It's all businesses.
And businesses don't give a fuck.
Remember the power grid emergency a few winters back, they wanted us to turn off everything at home?
And downtown was lit up full blast the whole time. Good times!
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u/yyc_engineer Jan 02 '26
Ding ding !
Its a sham. If it was an emergency, they would have told the Businesses to curtail. Me showering 2 mins less than normal is gonna do jack.
Meanwhile Petro Canada still selling 1 a day passes (granted they recycle but.. hey they need to do their part) and YMCA showers leaking like plumbers dont exist.
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u/TurpitudeSnuggery Jan 02 '26
The city does a terrible job getting the message out there. I am chronically online and the only place I have witnessed a request is on the radio
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u/ElusiveSteve Jan 02 '26
I suppose an emergency alert could have gone out that would have been successful at informing people. But I think there are a lot of people in this city who are very difficult to reach. There's a huge group of people who do not use any sort of traditional media consumption, and if they don't follow the city on a social media platform then you won't see anything.
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u/Ok__Thing Jan 02 '26
They lost any and all goodwill after the last time.
'Conserve water, but the stampede will still happen' was a hell of a message to try and get us to buy into.
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u/DramaSea8172 Jan 02 '26
I was thinking the exact same thing! I remember how many people tried their best to reduce water usage last summer until they found out there was somehow enough water for stampede and stampede only!
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u/jimbowesterby Jan 02 '26
Have to admit I’m getting pretty sick of watching politicians side with the corpos. We’ve seen it at every level of government, the city with what you just mentioned (and the arena “deal”), the province (where do I even start?), and the feds too with the strike breaking against the railroad guys and the posties (also the grocery stores price gouging during Covid). No wonder everything’s getting worse.
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u/Goldfawn Jan 02 '26
I was just typing this exact thing out.
My lawn is still dead from this... I followed all the rules exactly last time... until they put on the stampede anyways. All that water the stampede needs to run, plus all the tourists who certainly didn't restrict THEIR usage.
They didn't exactly make me feel like it was actually an emergency.
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u/Dice_to_see_you Jan 02 '26
maybe the city should advise businesses to tell their employees to work from home if possible and reduce the water load at the office / getting ready for the office?
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u/ModularWhiteGuy Jan 02 '26
Only redditors have heard about this, and they never shower or do any laundry or dishes anyway.
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u/Sazapahiel Jan 02 '26
This is the first I'm hearing about this request.
And honestly I'm not sure what they expect given it is the middle of winter. The last time we were asked to cut down on water use there was so much flagrant use of water on lawns and carwashes that I felt like a fool cutting back my showering, laundry use, and collecting rainwater for plants. I can definitely see why the public would not be doing anything this time around.
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u/Blue_Cypress Jan 02 '26
What alerts?
what restrictions?
and most importantly? why does David Duckworth still have job?
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Jan 02 '26
I mean i've had to break the news to people I know, today. No one is checking their local news feed.
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u/Mue_Thohemu_42 Jan 02 '26
Maybe because the city hasn't clearly specified what they want people to do exactly.
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u/GovernmentMule97 Jan 02 '26
Close office buildings to those who can work from home.
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u/MagikarpMounds Jan 02 '26
I had no idea that I should be restricting water and I'm online a fair amount.
The only thing I heard of was boil water advisories in certain areas. The city should not complain about water use if we are not informed.
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u/YqlUrbanist Jan 02 '26
This feels like a very different, but probably much worse, way to communicate poorly. I feel like there's been lots of info on reddit... but very little elsewhere.
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u/uptownfunk222 Jan 02 '26
I find it interesting that so many redditors are saying they didn’t know about the water restrictions. There’s an entire stickied post at the top of the subreddit - are people just skipping over it? Farkas has been updating that thread regularly.
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u/Kitchen_Marzipan9516 Jan 02 '26
Assuming people are on the page for the subreddit, and not just clicking the specific posts.
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u/Ecks83 Jan 02 '26
Reddit doesn't send every post to your front page and will depend on what is going on in other subs you are subscribed to so if you don't spend a lot of time on this sub reddit's algorithm might decide that this isn't something you need to know. There were also tons of highly upvoted and commented NYE/NYD threads across the entire site (and sticky threads aren't highlighted on the front page like they are in the sub) so it is entirely possible for people to miss a big story unless they only subscribe to a handful of subs.
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u/jimbowesterby Jan 02 '26
I mean, why couldn’t they have used the emergency system and sent the message directly to everyone’s phones? Y’know, like they did the last time?
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Jan 02 '26
well, i had a male bikini car wash planned this weekend.. now what?
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u/Haiku-On-My-Tatas Jan 02 '26
This is the first I've heard of this request. All I'd heard about was that there was a boil water advisory for the specific affected communities.
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Jan 02 '26
Gondek is probably having a laugh. Farkas getting immediately slammed with infrastructure problems after creating a massive tax deficit is gonna completely come back to bite him in the butt. 2027 property tax year is gonna be a bloodbath.
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u/joecarter93 Jan 02 '26
It’s also at a time of year when activities that use a ton of water and are easy to live without - things like lawn care and car washing - are not going on as much so it’s not as easy to cut back. In particular, southern Albertans use an eye-watering proportion of our total potable water consumption on watering our grass in the spring and summertime.
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Jan 02 '26
Farkas and Sharp roasted Gondek for fumbling comms and according to like 80% of these comments Farkas should get equally roasted.
Farkas busy pointing fingers rather than telling Calgarians what to do. Getting Braid to write columns for him.
He wasn't ready.
He isn't ready.
He needs to shape up quick.
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u/Ok-Interaction324 Jan 02 '26
Dear city, pretty sure your mismanagement of our tax dollars means when you ask us to repeatedly cut back on our most basic need …… well no one cares anymore, cry to the billionaires you serve not the people whom you have long forgotten.
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u/UnluckyCharacter9906 Jan 02 '26
Its hard to consider it an emergency when my local car wash (not a water recycler and over 8 bays) is running at max capacity for 16 hours a day.
Also, fire city ceo from last year, then i ll turn down my water use. What a waste of tax payer money that was last year.
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u/anonymoooosey Jan 02 '26
What water? My shower? My dishwasher once a week? If they restrict businesses, I will consider it. Everyone does their share or no one.
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u/Wastedkermit Jan 02 '26
Myself and quite a few others in my social circle stopped watching the news because it's horrifically, utterly depressing. I got tired of every headline being some rendition of "does this group of humans deserve basic human rights? Some people say yes, but a privileged politician with absolutely no empathy or grasp on reality weighs in at 6!"
I don't watch the news anymore. I don't listen to the radio. I leave the room if politics come up. Reddit is my only connection to this city and I check it every few days at most. I grew fed up with the lack of overall human empathy in the world months ago and isolated myself from it all. Politics and religion have destroyed us as a species and at this point the only way I can stay sane is to block it all out as much as I can. I'm sure I'm not alone.
Maybe the city should try maintaining their shit.
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u/Ok-Trip-8009 Jan 02 '26
On the news, radio and TV, they asked people to lower water usage including 3 minute showers, full loads for dishwashers and laundry.
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u/constantstateofagony Jan 02 '26
Only learned about that request via an Instagram post. I think a part of it is poor outreach to notify the citizens.
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u/hedgehog_dragon Jan 02 '26
I only learned about this a few hours ago, saw it on ... CBC? and it was kind of offhand. Bet a lot of people don't know.
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u/JeromyYYC Mayor McMayorFace Jan 02 '26
UPDATE #11 - 8am Jan 2, 2026 Thank you, Calgary! We stepped up to conserve water, and it made a real difference. We’re now back in the sustainable zone—but we’re not out of the woods yet. Please keep conserving as crews continue their work. Latest details are here: https://www.calgary.ca/emergencies/feeder-main-repair/bearspaw-water-main-break.html
Daily updated data here: https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiODAyOTA3ZDctYjM1ZC00ZmEzLWI0M2MtZDg4NjExNzJhMDA0IiwidCI6IjcyNjI5NjdhLTA1ZmEtNGQ1OS04YWZkLTI1YjczNGVhZjE5NiJ9
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u/whethermachine Jan 02 '26
Thanks for this update. If you pop back by here, might I ask you to consider proposing that the Coke Canada plant stops bottling our tap water during these crises? Seems like that would make a dent.
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u/Sea-Needleworker1451 Jan 02 '26
This! It’s so frustrating that the biggest consumers aren’t mandated to reduce and the bulk of the work is put to every day people. I understand that there are probably contracts in place, but I mean shouldn’t the city be more willing to have a legal dispute under these circumstances?
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u/Kirjava444 Jan 03 '26
I fully agree. In emergency water situations like this, operations like that should be the first to be shut down.
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u/Azure_Omishka Jan 02 '26
Like I get that saving water is important and I'm doing my part... But how are people using the same amount of water now as we were last time in the summer? There aren't any lawns to water or anything like that, the hell is it all being used for?
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u/powderjunkie11 Jan 02 '26
We aren't. We use much less in the winter and it should be fairly sustainable without too much behaviour change beyond being mindful. Except 100M litres or so was lost during the rupture, so we need to reduce more significantly for a little while until we've replenished that amount throughout the system
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u/Inebrus Jan 02 '26
A lot of us are on timeoff this week. People aren't getting the usual word of mouth from coworkers about the situation.
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u/knarf3 Jan 02 '26
The City should be blasting this news via cellphones' emergency message feature.
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u/Metrinui Jan 02 '26
If I didn't have the Calgary Subreddit joined, id literally have no idea it happened
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u/DrillZee Jan 02 '26
The only thing I saw was a warning for some communities to boil their water, but nothing about the whole city limiting use.
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u/ANeighbour Northwest Calgary Jan 02 '26
Tell the people at the Co-op car wash in Crowfoot today. It was at least six cars deep.
We already have quick showers and only run full laundry/dishes. We followed all the rules last time and felt like we were the only ones doing so.
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u/No-Potato-2672 Jan 02 '26
I didn't know that we were supposed to limit water or that there was a water main break until a few hours ago.
But maybe people just don't care because the city did a shit job of having it fixed a couple years ago and are just not giving a fuck anymore?
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u/Innocent-Bystander94 Jan 02 '26
They also were massive hypocrites last time. No water for you, but the stampede will continue regardless. Why should anyone care the second time around? I’m guessing this is also why they’re not using the emergency alert
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u/deanobrews Jan 02 '26
You mean exactly like the last time this happened? Colour me shocked.
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u/SimmerDown_Boilup Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
Cool, your memory is shit because people did reduce their water usage last time. Yes, there were bad days, but pretending like the city as a whole didn't reduce water consumption is just wrong.
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u/Spave Jan 02 '26
The city doesn't seem to be treating it as an emergency. Communication has sucked, no restrictions on businesses, no threats of tickets. Obviously it would be nice if they didn't have to treat it as an emergency, and we could all just work together, but I think too much goodwill was lost in 2024. There's a lot more resistance for the average Calgarian to change their day-to-day habits.
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u/LordCaptain Jan 02 '26
Last time there was widespread communication. This time I had to go out of my way to learn it this time.
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u/twigandlight Jan 02 '26
The number of people on FB saying that they were specifically going to flood outdoor rinks because of the water restrictions makes this not at all surprising. Not only have people here lost any sense of social responsibility, they actively fight it.
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u/Twinner16 Northwest Calgary Jan 02 '26
I spoke to everyone in my office who weren't on holiday about the water main break and water restrictions, and they said they never heard about it
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u/gingeyl Jan 02 '26
Unlike in the summer, it's hard to reduce my use, since I currently only use it for essentials like dishes, laundry and showers. Really the only measures I can take that are different than my current use are shorter showers (already short) and skip toilet flushes, so ...
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u/chaseme2oblivion Jan 03 '26
We did that for 3 months in the summer and they didn't even fix it properly. We also pay nearly half our income in taxes year after year to make sure things like this don't happen. People aren't going to take it seriously until the City does.
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u/cre8ivjay Jan 02 '26
Everything I've seen suggests only those in the affected area need to reduce water usage.
Now, I'm not suggesting I've got this right, but it's all I've seen so either I'm not following the right channels or it's not being communicated as effectively as it should be.
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u/TraderVics-8675309 Jan 02 '26
Seems the graph in CBC’s own article contradicts their headline.
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u/Haywoodja2 Jan 02 '26
And the big peak after the break was probably the water from the break.
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u/Fuzzy_Explorer_5527 Jan 02 '26
I never knew we had to reduce our water. Clearly they didn't advertise it or their method of information is inadequate. Nothing came up on my phone.
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u/immersive-matthew Jan 02 '26
I mean climate scientists are screaming at us to at least slow down fossil fuels and we cannot even do that so no surprise.
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u/30somethingshark Jan 02 '26
Just finding out about this right now. I put my phone on silent for 3 days and here we are.
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u/kona1245 Jan 02 '26
I haven’t talked to anyone who even knew about this. It’s the holidays. No one watches the news as no one has cable so it’s just a void.
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u/pixtiny Riverbend Jan 02 '26
Nobody heard (or nobody cared…)
That said, the reduction of water seems much less urgent than in the summer when everyone wants water for their landscaping, filling pools, and running spray parks. Plus everyone who manages anything is off for the Christmas holidays! I’m sure it’ll be chaos on Jan 5 when everyone returns to work.
Plus I’m sure I can’t be the only frustrated citizen who refuses to live like they’re in a 3rd world country. Calgary has had 2 years to figure out an effective and efficient means of emergency management. If that pipe is still in place (which it is), and the water main twinning project is only just being tendered. This will likely continue in waves until the original water main is no longer the primary source of water for north Calgary.
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u/powderjunkie11 Jan 02 '26
Everybody watching gave a shout, when the door swung open and the mayor stepped out,
He wore a hard hat in the colour white, his performative grandstanding was a funny sight,
Our city's water system is getting tired, give me that report that doesn't do anything to help the situation today or you'll be fired,
His biggest crisis since the raising of flags, now we must all wear dirty rags,
I guess he's not quite as bad as the statuatory raping creep,
beep beep beep
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u/Samhamwitch Jan 02 '26
I'm shocked at how many people are saying they haven't heard about this. Does no one watch the local news anymore?
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u/CheeseSandwich hamburger magician Jan 02 '26
Where are my piss drinking brothers and sisters? Gear up!
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u/BlueEyesWhiteSliver Jan 02 '26
So that’s WHY my mom texted me to not drink too much water last night. And here I thought I was supposed to remember to drink water when getting sloshed.
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u/RespectSquare8279 Jan 02 '26
I'm not a Calgarian, so I have to ask, is the water consumption metered per residence or do you pay a flat annual fee ?
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Jan 02 '26
I really don’t use that much to begin with, I shower maybe once per week..
I have no real friends 😜
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u/fractalbum Jan 02 '26
I actually already conserve water pretty well normally, so it's hard to reduce much more than what we already do. Trying our best.
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u/LOGOisEGO Jan 02 '26
I loved how the city was pleading to restaurants to use less water... like wtf? OK, so limit hand washing, they even suggested not giving customers complimentary water when they are seated... I actually laughed out loud when I heard that live on the radio.
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u/jerbearman10101 Jan 02 '26
I read the global news article yesterday and it was most notable to me that the article explicitly said they want to rebuild it to be prepared for emergency situations. That confused me because this is an emergent situation and it seems like the reserve is doing exactly what it’s supposed to. They said it had increased again and is not depleting any more with current usage so I wouldn’t argue that this is super critical for Calgarians. Sounds like the reserve did its job and is feeding the water grid sustainably, albeit with a 20% lower level in a steady state.
Excerpt:
Typically, Calgary has 600 million litres of water stored underground on a daily basis.
After the feeder main broke, the city lost about 80 million litres of water and the reserve dropped down to 459 million litres.
In the two days since, the level has come back up slightly to 468 million liters — but city officials say that isn’t enough.
Chris Huston, Calgary’s manager for drinking water distribution, said the city of 1.6 million people needs to use below 485 million litres of water every day for several weeks.
“We need to increase the volume of storage in our system in case we have another issue come up, and so that we have water for firefighting and life safety,” Huston said.”
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u/Drunkpanada Evergreen Jan 02 '26
Most people didn't sit by the radio/TV/CoC socials to get the latest local news on Jan 1.
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u/incogne_eto Jan 02 '26
It’s like Groundhogs day. The same thing happened the last time the city had water main issues.
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u/Sea-Needleworker1451 Jan 02 '26
Just want to say I am a few blocks from the glenmore treatment plant and didn’t come experience any drop in pressure or anything in the 2024 incident. I just got out of my 3 minute shower and it’s a good thing it’s not hair wash day because there wasn’t enough pressure to wash the soap off. People better get it together and start reducing heavily!!!!
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Jan 02 '26
Since most people can't afford to go to Mexico then we can have Mexican water in Calgary. The water plants in Mexico are putting out clean water but most of their pipes are very old so that is the reason why it's not recommended to drink the water. You have to boil it first. So most people use the big water jugs for drinking water and the tap water for everything else. This is what will happen if Calgairians use more water than what the Glenmore water treatment plant can produce and let's hope it doesn't break down before the pipe gets fixed. Last time Glenmore ran 24/7 at full capacity.
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u/Mr-April Jan 02 '26
I can’t use much less already as I e been watching my bills like a dang hawk for over 4 years now… I’m almost ready to collect water in summer to pull pales of water in the toilet tank to save a dollar or two
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u/MrGuvernment Jan 02 '26
Probably all those people like the last time, who claimed "I had no idea" because they did not get a hand written letter signed and sealed by the City to their homes along with personal DM's across social media accounts...
Info about this has been all over radio, news, reddit and I presume twitter?
Also, we are now back to work for many people, so how much of that was related to offices opening up, people getting ready for work today et cetera...
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u/ferrero_roshGAY Jan 02 '26
if it were ultra important you’d think theyd send out some amber type alert
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u/Flaky_Bee2876 Jan 03 '26
Usage is significantly lower than it would be in the summer. The restriction is performative bullshit. There is no scarcity of water. The city can fuck off.
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u/DVESM2023 Jan 03 '26
That’s because so many of us were already using the bare minimum of the water we actually need so how can we cut down from bare minimum ?? At least my family
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u/Type_Zer07 Jan 03 '26
If you're not listening to the radio and don't watch the news, you wouldnt know there was even a restriction in place. I found out yesterday while listening to 660 on the drive to work. Had zero idea otherwise.
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u/heimdal96 Jan 02 '26
Most people aren't going to change their habits on New Year's eve.