Residents in the local service district of Jackson’s Cove, Silverdale, Langdon’s Cove as well as Nicky’s Nose Cove are sounding the alarm on what they’re calling a municipal water crisis.

The communities have an aging municipal water supply system that has experienced a number of service disruptions over the past couple of years.

The most recent outage began on August 30 and lasted until September 12, after the main pump failed. Service was restored from September 12 to 17, before a leak was found near the pump house, and it was gone again.

Resident of Nicky’s Nose Cove, Karen Harcourt says there is a pump house in Langdon’s Cove, where each day they take their twelve, four-litre jugs and fill them full, along with four, five-gallon jugs and lug them back to the house.

She says they’re using buckets to flush the toilets and anything you want that needs warm water needs to be heated on the stove. Day-to-day activities like washing your hair, brushing your teeth, having a bath or doing the dishes requires a lot of work, bringing water to the house and heating it to the correct temperature for the task at hand.

A temporary fix was put in last Friday, which Harcourt says is great, but in the back of their minds they’re always thinking about how long it will last. She says their end goal is to get a permanent fix, and not just another band-aid like they keep getting.

She says they just want a reliable, dependable and safe water system, and says it is very physically demanding, especially for the many senior residents in the area.

Harcourt says they are getting assistance from government, who have made funds available for the area – now it’s up to the Local Service District to apply for capital funding.