Explaining the depth of Calgary’s water crisis

In today’s The Big Story podcast, typically, a broken watermain does not plunge a city into weeks of critical water shortages and a state of emergency. But the pipe that broke on June 5 wasn’t a typical watermain. Now, almost two weeks later, the city is estimating another three to five weeks for full repairs, and until then Calgarians are under water restrictions.

Kerry Black is an assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Calgary. “Calgary being essentially a leader in this space and still having this sort of issue should be huge alarm bells for other cities. The reality is, other cities of this size don’t necessarily invest as much time and resources,” said Black. 

How did the break happen, and could it have been prevented? Why will repairs take so long? What might happen if the city gets close to running out of water? And will the Calgary Stampede, due to start on July 5, still go on as scheduled?

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