麻豆传媒

It started innocuously enough: a press release from the city came out Wednesday, saying that Perkins Street would be closed from First Street A to Fourth Avenue.聽

At this time of year, it鈥檚 not uncommon to have a road closed due to a water main break. But Perkins is an arterial road, so it had my attention more than a statement about a road closure on a small, quiet residential street. 聽

And the closure would be a block or two from my place. No big deal, it wasn鈥檛 right in front of my place.

Then we found out the water main break was on one of the big transmission lines in the city. A boil water order (we don鈥檛 get one of those very often) was in effect for all of Estevan south of the CP Rail tracks, and it would remain in effect for a few days. 聽

Worst of all, from my perspective, no water for some properties south of Perkins Street. As it turned out, my condominium building was one of them. (Of greater significance, though, Hillcrest School was also impacted. Students at Hillcrest were out of school on Thursday).

It would take about 24 hours before the water was restored to my building. When you spend that much time without such a basic and essential service, you quickly realize how much you miss it. 聽

I couldn鈥檛 have a shower Thursday morning. Thankfully, I didn鈥檛 have to cover a press conference or anything of the ilk Thursday. If I would have, people would have been social distancing away from me, trying to stay six feet away.

Water was restored Thursday afternoon, thanks to the efforts of the City of Estevan鈥檚 staff, who spent the night trying to locate the exact source of the water main break, and then went to work repairing it.

As you might remember, it was -30 C with the wind chill Wednesday night. There wasn鈥檛 an extreme cold warning out, but when it鈥檚 cold with a strong wind outside, it sure feels like extreme cold. You don鈥檛 need someone from Environment Canada telling you to stay indoors.

I don鈥檛 know about you, but when it鈥檚 -30 C outside, with or without the wind chill, I can think of a lot of things I鈥檇 rather be doing. I鈥檇 rather sit back in my recliner, sip a nice dark beer and read my book. At some point, it will be time to climb into my nice, warm bed.

I would have no interest in trying to find the exact location of a water break beneath the ground at 1 a.m.

Those who were at work that night certainly earned their keep.

You didn鈥檛 see many people taking to social media to grumble about the amount of time it took to restore water. The comments I saw were very appreciative of the efforts of city staff. 聽

The boil water advisory ended Saturday for most in south Estevan, except for those who didn鈥檛 have water for 24 hours on Wednesday and Thursday. We still have to boil water if we want to use it for cooking, drinking, cleaning dishes or brushing our teeth.聽

Of course, it鈥檚 a relatively minor inconvenience. We have to boil water for a few days. I could still use the water for laundry, mopping the floors, showering and a host of other household tasks.聽聽聽

A friend of mine posted on Facebook on Thursday that so many communities in our country have had boil water advisories for years. Many people who are old enough to drive have had a boil water advisory their entire lives.

The Neskantaga First Nation in Ontario has had such a warning for 25 years. In this country, or any leading nation for that matter, it鈥檚 inexcusable.

And we were subject to a boil water order. We didn鈥檛 have a do not use order, which would be much worse.

Taking the dishes into the office to clean them a few times, or using bottled water instead of tap water to brush my teeth, doesn鈥檛 seem like such a bad proposition. 聽

Most people in Estevan didn鈥檛 have a boil water order. For those that did, most were asked to boil water for 72 hours. In a few days, we鈥檒l have other things to worry about, and the boil water order will seem like a distant memory.

And it鈥檚 not like most of us had to spend a night outside in the -30 C wind chill trying to get the water restored.