Parts of UPEI under boil-water order after water main break

A boil-water order is in effect for several UPEI buildings following the repair of a broken water line near Wanda Wyatt Dining Hall Monday.

The university sent an alert through an app Tuesday morning to let staff and students know about the advisory.

"Facilities management staff have flushed the water line to allow water service to be restored to all affected locations," the alert said.

The Wanda Wyatt Dining Hall, Blanchard Hall, Bill and Denise Andrew Hall, Bernardine Hall, Don and Marion McDougall Hall, K.C. Irving Chemistry Centre and the daycare building are all under orders to boil water before using until given the all-clear by lab testing.

"Students can use the facilities, can shower — they are just unable to drink it," said Jonathan Oliver, director of auxiliary services at UPEI.

Water was shut off at some residences and the dining hall for about eight-and-a-half hours Monday while the water main was repaired.

"The dining hall process, the way the food service works is they have everything prepped a day in advance anyway. So they were able to still provide the menu choices, with maybe some minor alterations," he said.

The university purchased drinking water and handwashing stations, and at affected residence buildings students were directed to other part of campus to use the washroom, Oliver said, adding the drinking water will continue to be available for the duration of the boil order.

Water has been sent to the provincial testing lab. Oliver said he isn't sure when results will be back.'

'Back to drinkable'

Cody Rogers is a residence life advisor who helped deliver water to students.

"Each person got about four water bottles, just 500 millilitres," Rogers said. "The water came back on around evening time yesterday and we can use it for showering but it isn't good to drink yet," he said.

Rogers said people in residence are using bottles of water to brush their teeth while the boil order remains.

"They are hoping to get the water back to drinkable today or tomorrow," he said.

Because the water was shut off Monday, the daycare on campus had to shut down.

'An untenable situation'

"We had to make the decision to close the daycare centre because with 45 children if you can't use the sinks or the toilets or drink water," said daycare worker Sheila Stretch. "It was just an untenable situation."

However, the daycare is open Tuesday under the boil water order, with added precautions.

"All of our kids have water bottles that they drink from so we had to take all those and dump them out refill them with bottled water. Our cook has to wash her hands with bottled water," she said.

Stretch said the daycare has to be careful the kids are not trying to fill up their bottles using the taps.

"Washing their hands as normal is OK, but just to be on the safe side we are using a little bit of hand sanitizer afterwards just in case there is any bacteria there."

Stretch said she hasn't been notified about how long the boil order will be in effect.

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