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CBC
a day ago
- Health
- CBC
Search is on for new water source in Umiujaq, Que., as local spring dries up
The community of Umiujaq, Que., is looking for a new source of drinking water, after its water reservoir was found empty last year. Next to the village's water treatment plant is a large reservoir to store water collected during the summer. When it's full, it can hold roughly two years' worth of water for the community. Hossein Shafeghati, the Kativik Regional Government's municipal public works director, said he was notified in March 2024 that the reservoir had no more water. He brought in researchers from Université Laval to investigate. The researchers' theory is that the spring that Umiujaq draws water from has dried up, and thawing permafrost could be to blame. "They believe that the permafrost might have degraded and changed the slope. So that water is going somewhere else [away from the reservoir]," Shafeghati said. Last summer, the researchers flew in pumps to extract water from a part of the river further north, to ensure there is sufficient supply. In the coming months, some of the researchers will be back in Umiujaq to look for a new, permanent water source near the community. Challenges of location Richard Fortier is one of the researchers involved in the search for a new source. His team has identified several possible sites, but all have logistical challenges. One section of a local river, for example, is near a landfill. "If you want to use the surface water in the river, you have to pump the water uphill of the dump and the wastewater pump. Otherwise if you take it downhill, you are vulnerable to the contamination from the dump and the wastewater pump," Fortier said. That would mean a more complex — and costly — construction job. Another researcher, Jean-Michel Lemieux, also floats the idea of underground water as a possible source, like in the other Nunavik communities of Salluit and Kuujuaraapik. The warmth from a body of water can create taliks – layers of unfrozen ground within a permafrost region. Lemieux, who's studied the area for a decade, said there is a valley with groundwater, though it's several kilometres away from the village. But he believes it could be worth it, given groundwater is better quality – and tastes better — than surface water. "The soil naturally filters the water, so there's bacteria, there's viruses. So the rock quality of the water that could be pumped from an aquifer is much better." Once a viable new water source is identified, the Kativik Regional Government will need to get it approved with Quebec's Environment Ministry. It will also take time to build new infrastructure, so Shafeghati anticipates the entire process could take up to five years. Other impacts of climate change Thawing permafrost, on areas with a slope, can cause active layer detachment. "That is when that active layer sitting on the slope loses the attachment to the permafrost and then it slides down the slope. That's where you have landslides," Shafeghati explained. The road to Umiujaq's airport could be at risk, he said, though he doesn't believe other parts of the village will need to be relocated because of permafrost degradation. However, it will be a factor in where they choose the new water source to be situated. Last week, the Quebec government announced $1.85 million for landslide research in Nunavik. The province said that money will help Université Laval to map out landslide-prone areas in the region, and funding is also being provided to the Kativik Regional Government to improve risk management. In an email to CBC News, Umiujaq Mayor Jack Niviaxie said he's seeing the effects of climate change already in his community. About 460 kilometres east of Umiujaq, climate change is also threatening the water in Tasiujaq. That village, situated near Ungava Bay, is renowned for its high tides. Shafeghati said the tidal fluctuation there is greater than the Bay of Fundy, and rising sea levels could be pushing water further up the community's river. "There are times in the year that there is salt water intrusion and there are sensors in the system that will shut down the pumping when there is salinity in the river," he said. He said the system in Tasiujaq is fine for now, but in the new few decades, the community may have to consider moving the water pumping station further upriver.
CBC
28-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Leaders across Nunavik want utilidors for water. Experts say it's not easy.
Social Sharing As Puvirnituq, Que., continues to grapple with its water shortage, officials are looking at permanent solutions to aging infrastructure across Nunavik. On Monday, a state of emergency was extended for another 10 days. In the past, leaders across Nunavik have called for utilidors to be installed in their communities. Those are corridors for providing utilities like water either underground or above ground. Hossein Shafeghati, the public works director at the Kativik Regional Government (KRG), said that's an avenue they've considered for many years, but there are two main barriers — money and permafrost. In 2019, a feasibility study for utilidors just in Kangiqsualujjuaq — an average-sized Nunavik village with a population of under 1,000 — estimated the cost to be $170 million. "With the inflation we have had in construction projects … if we were to start this year, it would probably be around $300 million," Shafeghati said. Most of Nunavik is covered in permafrost, a thick layer of soil where temperatures are below for at least two years, and that makes burying water pipes underground a challenge. Michel Allard, an emeritus professor with Laval University's geography department, has been studying permafrost thaw in Nunavik and Nunavut for decades. "It's not easy to dig in the permafrost," he said, adding that permafrost melt is a gradual process. Given the rising population over time, he said many Nunavik communities built water pumping stations near lakes to draw more water for delivery and sewage ponds to dump wastewater, in the absence of a utilidor system. "As the size of the community increases, water consumption increases as well," Allard said. "People feel the need now to have water from the tap. That means having pipes or buried pipes … to bring the water directly to the houses." Pipes in other Arctic communities In Nunavik, only Kuujjuarapik has a utilidor system. Shafeghati said that's because the village is built on sand, rather than permafrost and it's easy to excavate. "So the pipes are buried at a safe depth with a very low risk of freezing," Shafeghati said. "Incidents of freezing happen quite often, but that [happens] closer to the surface … and they have a municipal crew that is trained and equipped with the tools they need to address those freezing events rapidly." Further north in Nunavut where there is permafrost, partial piped systems exist in Iqaluit, Rankin Inlet and Resolute Bay. Allard has studied the system in Iqaluit, which is also possible because of the community being largely built on sand. He also looks to other circumpolar countries like Alaska and Greenland for inspiration, which have pipes above ground too. "[In Greenland] they have utilidors, but they also have insulated and heated pipes that run on the surface … they build on hills, they build on bedrock, much more so than we do in Nunavik," he said. However, he said digging those ditches, and blasting that bedrock, can be costly and complex and he stressed that each community has its own geology to consider. 'There's nothing much left' Shafeghati said he's calculating budgets for some new projects, but "there's nothing much left" from provincial funding. "To put anything underground, it's not realistic with that kind of money," he said. He said in many municipalities across Canada, funding is distributed per capita. "That might sound fair, but it's not equitable, so it should be a needs-based system," he said. Quebec's Indigenous Affairs Minister Ian Lafrenière said he's not opposed to the idea of exploring utilidors in Nunavik, but he said he first wants to complete the post-mortem with local authorities into what has gone wrong in Puvirnituq. "I want to see the results of this complete review, because if there was a need for money … nothing was proposed to us. So let's look into it. If it is an issue with money, we're flexible," he said. He said there are several funding agreements on a yearly basis for all services in Nunavik amounting to roughly $800 million, and several agreements had funds unspent. Shafeghati believes utilidors in other parts of Nunavik are possible. In the meantime, he said he's looking at other avenues such as subsidized private-public partnership and improving the water trucking system. That includes working on boosting the workforce, currently dominated by men. "We will need more education … because this is very labour intensive. Or we should perhaps invest in housing to bring in workers from the outside because a lot of our villages have very, very young populations."
Globe and Mail
14-05-2025
- Climate
- Globe and Mail
Inuit village in Quebec's Far North facing ‘severe' water distribution challenges
Officials in Quebec's Nunavik region are raising the alarm over water shortages in the Inuit community of Puvirnituq, where a frozen pipe and persistent blizzards have left residents without consistent water deliveries for nearly two months. The Kativik Regional Government says the village's five-kilometre-long water pipeline froze during a blizzard in mid-March and has yet to thaw. As a result, the town of roughly 2,100 people has been forced to bring in water by truck in extreme weather on icy, snowy roads. Hossein Shafeghati, the Kativik Regional Government's director of municipal public works, says persistent bad weather has left the trucks struggling through slush and snowdrifts to make deliveries. 'In the past three weeks – and this might be a little bit of an exaggeration – my colleagues who are there are telling me that they have had a blizzard every two days,' he said. 'So the situation of the snow on the ground, which is a lot of slush right now, has made the movement of trucks very difficult.' He said the regional government has marshalled as many resources as possible to help clear the roads and shovel out the access points to deliver water, which in some cases are under two metres of snow. And with more snowfall in the weekend forecast, 'there are a couple of hard weeks to go through,' he said. The ordeal has essentially 'paralyzed' the village, he said. While he doesn't know exactly how long people have gone without water deliveries, he believes it's for days at a time. 'Water is the most important thing,' he said. 'When we say water, it's for drinking, for cooking, for washing, for flushing the toilets, for everything.' He said interruptions that last longer than a few days 'make life unbearable' and lead to physical illnesses and mental health problems. He said the local school has been forced to close at least once, and even the hospital has been affected. In a statement, Kativik said the community 'continues to face severe water distribution challenges.' It said it's hoping the weather will improve enough for interim repairs to take place in June and for normal operations to resume during the summer. In the meantime, the water is loaded into trucks at a pumping station and disinfected manually with chlorine. Shafeghati said the interim repair consists of building a new section of pipe to bypass the frozen one while it's thawed out. Longer term solutions aren't as simple, he said. Shafeghati said Puvirnituq is one of three communities that is currently dealing with a frozen pipe, but the other two are smaller and more manageable. While nothing can be done about the weather, he said upgraded infrastructure would help prevent problems. But only if governments invested at a far higher level than they currently do. Another persistent issue is the lack of a skilled work force to operate and maintain the equipment, which he said is a challenge with a very young population where many people are under 18. Those who want to become mechanics, heavy equipment operators or technicians have to travel to distant parts of the province for schooling that is not always adapted to Indigenous realities, he said. 'It will be a long while, because the nature of the problems are very complex,' he said. 'It may take another generation to make it sustainable.'
