Iqaluit water shutdown blamed on aging pipes, lack of parts

Some residents andbusinesses in downtown Iqaluithave running water this morning for the first time since Saturday, and city officials say that old pipes and a lack of maintenance reports are to blame.

Though the partial water shutdown in Nunavut's capital ended yesterday evening, a boil water advisory remains in effect for the affected area of town.

The shutdown was the result of a leaking water main, and city officials say it took so long to fix because the pipes are 30years old, and the parts needed to cap the leak aren't manufactured any more.

Compounding the situation, Matthew Hamp, Iqaluit'scirector of Engineering and Public Works, says the city doesn't know what kind of maintenance has been done on the pipes since they were installed, an issue Hamp says he's hoping to fix in the future.

"That's part of my mandate," he says, "to get into this planning for maintenance.

"Which is not to say maintenance hasn't been done; there is just no record of it, or very little record of it."

Hamp says that he is currently building a list of the city's assets, which will help him identify what work needs to be done. He's hoping to finish that by the end of the year, atwhich point his department will make a maintenance plan for the city's aging infrastructure.