Dry taps, closed schools, hospitals to avoid: more than half of the population of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu is still deprived of running water after a major pipe break that occurred on Monday. The situation should last at least until the end of the day this Thursday, according to the mayor, who attributes it to a possible “vibration” problem linked to an infrastructure project.
“We have never seen this, such a big water cut,” says Jean-François Guilbault, at the wheel of his car. Like him, some 56,000 people, living at 26,000 addresses, were still without water late Wednesday evening. More than half of the total population of the municipality is therefore affected.
The seriousness of the situation also forced the City to declare a local state of emergency. Bottled water distribution points were quickly set up by the City at Carrefour Richelieu and at the bus terminal on Rue Boucher.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
The mayor of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Andrée Bouchard
“All we have is barely a trickle of water. Nothing works in the house anymore. We are going to the restaurant and we hope that things will get better quickly. There has been work going on in the area for a long time. It’s as if it had suddenly exploded,” says Mr. Guilbault, who nevertheless salutes the “incredible work” of the City in the last hours.
A little further, Daniel Labelle remains optimistic despite the situation. “We wash with a mitt instead of taking our bath and shower, but otherwise, we manage. There are worse things than that in life, we’ll get through it,” he says, with a smile on his lips.
Not before this Thursday evening
If all goes well, the population will have to wait until the end of the day, this Thursday, to regain access to water. “That said, when everyone will have water, that does not mean that everyone will have pressure. It will recover in about six to eight hours once the repair is done,” explained Mayor Andrée Bouchard on Wednesday, in an interview with The Press.
Several dozen city employees were then busy, behind her, distributing bottles of water to the hundreds of motorists lining up at Carrefour Richelieu, in the city center. Up to two four-liter containers of drinking water per address were given free of charge.
” From [mardi] afternoon, it’s non-stop,” sums up André Marquis, from the City’s leisure department. “All municipal services are involved in trying to make this as smooth as possible,” he adds.
The pipe rupture occurred in a construction site located at the intersection of Saint-Jacques and Caldwell streets on Monday. The drinking water pipe in question has a diameter of 75 centimeters and supplies the Saint-Luc, L’Acadie, Saint-Jean and Île Sainte-Thérèse districts.
“We have already experienced ice and floods, so we have an emergency measures plan which is quite effective. And a drinking water shortage, even if it had never happened, it was planned in the plan, so the services were able to come together quickly to support the citizens,” says Mme Bouchard.
Emergency work
Around ten workers were still busy repairing the pipe on Wednesday evening. A first repair attempt had also failed during the day. “We all feel a little guilty despite everything,” said one of the workers, even if everything indicates that human error is not to blame. Some had been working tirelessly for 50 hours to repair the pipe, according to the mayor.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Up to two four-liter containers of drinking water per address were given free of charge to residents on Wednesday.
The part that failed was halfway through its useful life of approximately 120 years. “It’s not an issue of obsolescence. We rather think that it is a vibration issue with infrastructure work that was not very far away. It’s a stupid accident,” says Andrée Bouchard.
Fourteen schools will remain closed this Thursday and Friday due to “the absence of drinking water and [de] the inaccessibility of toilet blocks in the environments,” announced the Hautes-Rivières school service center in a press release.
Shortly before, the CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre had asked the population to avoid the emergency room at the Haut-Richelieu hospital due to problems linked to the burst pipe. The water cut was indeed affecting the activities of the health establishment.
“We are updating our emergency measures plan and deploying our contingency plans. There will be variations in our services offered,” explained a CISSS spokesperson, Chantal Vallée, by email.
On Boulevard du Séminaire, in front of the hospital, many municipal employees were trying to supply the hospital with water through fire hydrants. As quantities remained limited, the nearby daycare did not yet know, at that time, whether it could reopen its doors this Thursday, the health system being prioritized for the water supply.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Several tank pump trucks have been ordered by the City of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
In other CISSS facilities, activities were maintained. However, certain services could “be modulated differently depending on the situation,” said M.me Valley.
Several tank pump trucks have been ordered by the City of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. One of them, provided by the City of Longueuil, arrived on site Wednesday. “Maybe tomorrow [ce jeudi], we will invite people to go and fill their bottles directly,” concluded Mayor Andrée Bouchard on this subject. For residents in the affected areas who continued to receive a very low flow of water in their taps, she recommended boiling it before consumption.
With Philippe Teisceira-Lessard, The Press