Municipality of Chester sets up program to combat lack of drinking water

The Municipality of the district of Chester is giving out coupons forbottledwaterto help people on Nova Scotia's drought stricken south shore.

The coupons can beexchanged at local storesfor bottled water.

People onNova Scotia's southwest shore have been in the grip of a water shortage for weeks.As the drought continues, other parts of the province have also started to run low on water.

That includesthe south shore and parts of the Halifax Regional Municipality. Dartmouth and surrounding areas even havewater-use restrictions in place because theirwater supply has gotten so low.

Bottled water solution

The municipality of Chester will provide households experiencing a water shortage with coupons forbottled drinking water. Each person can get a four-litre jug of water per day, but there's a dailyfourjug per household limit, said a posting on the municipality's website.

The program starts Monday Sept. 26.

In order to take part in the program residents need to pick up coupons from the municipality which can then be redeemed at local stores for bottled water.

The coupons can be picked up at:

• The Municipal Office, 151 King Street in Chester, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday.
• The Municipal Office, 151 King Street in Chester, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday Sept. 26.
• New Ross Family Resource Centre from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 30.

Allen Webber is the warden for the municipality. Hesaid the coupons can be redeemed at several local stores. Those stores include:

• HubbardsIndependent
• The Independent in Chester
• Chester BasinPetroCanada
• ChesterFoodland

Webber said councilis looking fora grocery store in New Ross that will take the coupons as well.

"We've done this because primarily we don't have a municipal water supply, so we were having difficulty in finding ways to assist the public. Most of our fire departments and community halls are all on wells of their own," said Webber.

$10,000 put aside for bottled water

Sixty households in the municipalityhave officially reported that their wells are out of water. Webber said he knows the actual number of people with dry wells ismuch higher.

"Most people's homes when I go to them are either very low or haven't had any water to speak of for a month.There are a lot of them. It seems to be most prevalent along the coastal part of our municipality," said Webber.

The community has set aside $10,000 to cover the cost of the bottled water. Every week council will meet and decide if more money is needed to purchase additional water.

'We could at least give people clean water to drink"

There was a concern, said Webber, that if fire departments and community halls started giving out water their wells would soon end up dry as well.

That's when the municipality came up with the idea of giving out coupons for bottled water.

"It doesn't help with the issues surrounding washing clothes or having showers. But we thought it was at least necessary for us at this point, with so many wells dry that we could at least give people clean water to drink."

"We'll maintain this program as long as there's a need," said Webber."If it becomes worse then we'll have to consider other action."