1.3 Million Residents In & Around Montreal Under Boil Order For Drinking Water - G&M
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Officials say they do not believe the water is tainted by harmful bacteria and issued the advisory as a precaution. However, the warning remains in effect for at least 24 hours while tests are carried out. In the meantime, residents are being warned to boil water at least a minute before using it to drink, wash fruits and vegetables or brush their teeth. “What is extraordinary is the scale of the water-boil advisory, which touches an enormous number of districts … and the public,” said Chantal Morissette, director of Montreal’s water supply service.
Montreal’s communications didn’t help. The news reached many Montrealers after they had had their morning coffee and brushed their teeth. Then the city of Montreal’s Web pages dealing with the problem were down until the afternoon. City communications staff were unable to provide information to reporters all day, and institutions such as daycares and schools said they were told of the warning hours after the fact.
The boil-water dictum was unprecedented in its breadth. It applied to a vast swath of the island of Montreal south of the expressway known popularly as the Metropolitan, from the partly industrial borough of Saint Laurent in the west to the very eastern tip of the island, along with bedroom communities like Westmount and Mount Royal and the entire central core of the city.
In response, schools phoned parents to tell them to put bottled water in their children’s lunchboxes on Thursday. Some cafés ceased dispensing coffee, dentists cancelled appointments, and hospitals applied emergency protocols. At the McGill University Health Centre, water fountains and ice machines were shut down and patients at the Montreal Children’s Hospital were given sponge baths with purified water.
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/montreals-boil-water-warning-inflames-an-already-simmering-city/article12057305/
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