Sambaa K’e water advisory lifted after six weeks

A do-not-consume advisory on the tap water in Sambaa K’e, N.W.T., has been lifted, and residents can use their water as normal again, the territorial government said Thursday.

The advisory was issued in mid-September, six weeks ago, as a precaution after a rapid test strip came back positive for an “unexpected” toxin linked to blue-green algae, CBC News reported. The community on Trout Lake in the Dehcho region had switched to drawing water from the lake while its reservoir underwent maintenance.

The chief public health officer said in a news release that the community’s water treatment plant is now working normally and that the water-holding tanks have been cleaned and disinfected, according to CBC and Cabin Radio. “Normal use of drinking water may resume,” the advisory said.

The territorial government has published steps for residents to flush their household water supply as a final precaution. It said no illnesses linked to the water had been reported in the community.

Residents were told at the time that boiling the water would not remove the toxin, called microcystin, and could concentrate it instead. Microcystin is produced by cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae.

The advisory had remained listed as active on the territory’s drinking water advisory page on Thursday. Other communities in the territory have faced advisories this fall, and across Canada 39 long-term water advisories remain in 37 communities. Sambaa K’e is also in the Dehcho region, where Nahanni Butte recently won a national planning award for its flood plan.

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