So you might have heard that Calgary is currently under heavy water restrictions due to a feeder water main suffering a catastrophic leak that flooded parts of the city, a 2m wide pipe. They initially told us to expect at least a week for repairs to be finished. But as of yesterday we learned the damage is more severe and expect another 3-5 weeks of water restrictions.

It has sucked, and the only thing that was bearable was maybe we could all better understand how to limit our use of essential resources. Well except that significant portions have refused to believe it and increased water usage. So we’ve been running on a thin line to barely not exceed water reserves for the city.

And the main thought going through my mind is the inability of our government to handle it because there are certain assumptions that have been made. Chiefly that we cannot allow this to impact the economy, or local businesses. So theyre exempt from the water restrictions, although several did take steps to help. Notably my employer, the largest grocery store in Canada, has been completely silent and hasn’t even bothered to donate water bottles or something to help offset the water limits on people.

Any attempt to ask for the city to have businesses shut off to prevent the loss of our water has been met with a cry of liberal piggies explaining how they could not possibly survive without their paycheques… Like there is no thoughts that maybe we could just pay people to not work and they could preserve the precarious water situation by giving people an easier time? I also fully expect most of them refuse to go without brunch or fancy dinners out on the town. Treats before anything else!

Basically there is no vision for better solutions because everyone needs to work to get paid and any attempt around it is shouted down as impossible. It is further hindered of course by the Alberta provincial government being so far right wing that the very idea of even asking them for assistance is a fools errand when our premier is highly likely to promote conspiracy theories about the water main break.

This also is further proof of the failure of western powers to bother with maintaining basic infrastructure to ensure this shit doesn’t happen. Supposedly the pipe was checked in April, but this is literally a pipe installed in the 1970s and so considering all the issues they’re discovering (but not disclosing, which just feeds the conspiracy narrative), the maintenance has been far below sufficient to say the least. But because it is underground it is out of sight out of mind.

Sorry for the rant but nobody in my home or work wants to listen to me. And I’ve needed to get this off my chest and my work has conveniently given me far more hours than I can comfortably handle in the next 3 weeks so I’m not in a great state of mind.

Death to Canada.