Regina residents sound off about city's water management

The city of Regina has been encouraging residents to cut down theirwater use for more than a week, but a solution to the water woes still hasn't been found.

At a news conference at the Buffalo Pound Treatment Plant, officials continued to stress the importance of cutting back water use by 25 per cent, adding further restrictions could be put in place in the future if the conservation goals are not met.

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The city's issue is with the quality of the water, not the quantity, pointing to a high level of algae bloomin the water source.

But the city's latest plea has some people speaking out against the city's management of the crisis. Others hope their neighbours will conserve, despite their frustration.

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Yvonne Wiens planted tomatoes a few days ago and has held off watering them because of the city's request.

"Right now we're doing nothing," Wiens said Thursday. "We haven't watered. We planted these tomatoes last Monday so it's been four days and they haven't been watered."

Residents are also wondering about the response to the water quality issues, which were first noted by city officials in April.

"I'm surprised that we're caught off guard like this," Regina resident Lorne Kelly, who has not been watering his lawn, said. "I mean we've been through this before. We're not even into a big-time drought yet. We've been down this road with algae before, why is now different?"

The latest from officials is that water from Lake Diefenbaker is flowing into Buffalo Pound Lake, as one measure to fix the water quality issue. They note, however, that results will take as much as two weeks.

"We could see some of that starting to show up now," Patrick Boyle, from the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency, said. "By the time it works its way down the lake to the intake, that will be something else. But it's certainly something we are watching closely and very carefully."

Officials have also noted that rain would help the situation, but there was only 10 mm of rain in the area in May. Normally the area gets an average of 50 mm in that month.