Residents at a seniors home in Nova Scotia are relieved to have running water again after it stopped working for several hours. About 25 residents live at Spruce Grove Apartments in Porters Lake, including Donna Surrette, who says residents were already unable to use the water after it was tested for lead. The provincially-run building now uses well-water, which Surette says stopped working around 4 p.m. Tuesday. “It was going on for five years, but the last three years it has declined so quickly to last night, we were without water for over 15 hours.” Residents in the building have been relying on bottled water. “We couldn’t shower…we had to take the drinking water that they gave us to pour into the tanks of our toilets, so that we were able to use the toilet,” she says. “The oldest person in here is 88 years old and down. We have seniors who go get a shower, they put shampoo in their hair…lather it up and everything. All of a sudden, the water stops. They have to go get the bottles of drinking water. They have to make a couple of trips because they need about six to eight bottles to drain their hair. I don’t understand how come we don’t have more broken bones in here." Don Watts, another resident, was in the middle of a shower when the water stopped on Tuesday. ‘I was thinking, ‘Oh, yeah, here we go.’ And I stood there for 10 minutes hanging onto the rails,” says Watts. “You get to the point where you wonder, ‘Should I go in the shower or should I not?’” Another resident, Mary Jodrey, says she often takes showers and does laundry at her son’s nearby house. “On Monday, I went to my son’s, and at the last minute, I grabbed my laundry, took it with me yesterday, and before I came home, I had my shower. I’m glad I did because I got home at 4:30 p.m. and there was no water.” Jodi Sibley, a spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Provincial Housing Agency, says the problem is now fixed. “There is no issue with the water quality at the building. While Spruce Grove has experienced some challenges with water supply, these are not unusual for an area that is largely served by wells. The hot, dry weather experienced over the past several weeks has contributed to the situation. We have been delivering water multiple times a week to ensure tenants have an adequate water supply,” Sibley told CTV News in a statement Wednesday. “The issue reported at Spruce Grove last evening is related to a mechanical failure with the well system. Additional bottled water was delivered to tenants last night and again this morning. Repairs were completed this afternoon, including the installation of a new well pump and control system. Water has now been restored.” Residents hope the problem stays fixed so no one there is without the basic need. “We followed the proper path. We got a hold of them, we got a hold of our MLA and nothing. They had years to fix this, and now they’re trying to fix it 24 hours?” says Surrette. “There’s a lot of other issues that we have here. But right now, our main concern is to get one of the most vital needs that we need to survive. And that is water.” For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
