Roughly 10,000 Aylmer residents are facing their sixth straight day under a boil-water advisory, with several expressing frustration over the communication from public officials.
A City of Gatineau official told CBC on the weekend that the advisory that was issued Aug. 1 was prompted by E.coli contamination found during routine weekly water quality tests.
It’s the same bacteria that triggered a previous advisory on July 18. The cause, quantity, and concentration of the bacteria are currently not available.
The advisory covers an area that’s roughly east of chemin Eardley, west of the Gatineau Golf and Country Club, south of boulevard des Allumettières and north of chemin d’Aylmer.
However, the information on the city’s website does not state that E.coli is to blame — and that’s frustrating for residents like Charlotte Camboriza, a federal public servant who’s lived near boulevard Wilfrid-Lavigne for about eight years.
Camboriza said she’s concerned about the health risks the water could pose to her four-year-old daughter.
“It’s hard for her to take a bath and not be drinking the bath water,” Camboriza said.
She also said the boil-water advisory has made it difficult to cook for the household.
“We’ve been having to wash all of our fruits and vegetables with bottled water, which is not very environmentally friendly.”
The city’s communication has been “poor,” Camboriza said, adding that she wants to be told both the reasons for the boil-water advisories and what specific steps are being taken to mitigate the recurring problem.
Rock Langlois, a computer systems analyst who has lived near rue Broad for the past four years, said water advisories were rare in the sector until this year.
Langlois said he feels the city isn’t taking the water issue seriously enough.
“Public officials are being super nonchalant about the situation when [they’ve] communicated to their constituents,” Langlois said. “They don’t seem to figure out that it’s a big problem.”
To ensure his household had enough safe water, Langlois spent an entire day boiling and storing it, a process he found “time-consuming and frustrating.”
He said he felt public officials were being unresponsive and unsympathetic to the challenges Aylmer residents have been facing.
“I just think that we’re pretty much left to our own devices,” he said.
Next test results Tuesday afternoon
Radio-Canada reached out to Lucerne Coun. Gilles Changnon, whose district has been most affected by the advisory, but he declined an interview.
The next water quality test results will not be available until Tuesday afternoon, according to officials.
“Over time, we start coping with these things by taking on responsibilities we shouldn’t have to take on,” Langlois said.
“So the future is a little bit dim, but I’m just hoping for the best.”