Just add water

Greetings from Rocky Lane!

NWT fires

So the temperature this week has been well over 30 degrees every day. As I write this Northern Alberta is under a humidex warning that the temperature could hit 40 degrees. There is also a severe storm warning issued with the potential for heavy hail and strong winds. Storm warnings bring with them the threat of forest fires (a threat that is made more real by the smoky skies from fires in the North-west territories a few hundred km to the North.

Smoky Skies

All of this naturally makes me think about water. Water in Beaver First Nation is no simple thing. There are no pipes connecting all of the houses on the reserves. Instead all of the water is taken from a local river, run through a water treatment station, and delivered by truck out to every household in the community. Water is also delivered to community buildings such as the School and health centre. I have been told that the water tank for the school holds 16 truckloads of water.

Water Truck

It is one thing to make water deliveries around the community in summer, but I imagine quite another to do water deliveries in mid-winter when it is -30 degrees and the roads are icy. When I asked about winter deliveries, the driver I was talking to just pointed to his ice axe on the side of his truck for breaking the ice to pump the water.

The possibility of water shortages is exacerbated by the possibility of the loss of power. Over the past two months we have had a few power cuts, again thankfully they were short in duration (less than two hours) but there are stories about a 17 hour power cut that occurred last winter. Power cuts of course take out the power for water pumps as well. Add to that the somewhat sporadic cell reception up here and you can see that the issues could easily compound.

Thankfully the community is both well organised in relation to water and good at checking in on one another. My experience up here has certainly made me reconsider how much I take water for granted when I turn on the tap in Calgary.

In addition to work I have been doing a few jobs in the community. I got asked to build a garden at the day care centre, I thought that they meant in existing planters like what I have done at the health centre, but it turned out they wanted me to construct the planter as well.  Thankfully I got help from one of the guys in the community who is an excellent builder (he built the apartment that Nisha and I live in).

Garden Before

Garden After