While not apologizing for the water crisis itself, Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek issued a brief apology for not communicating well enough and thanked Calgarians for their continued sacrifices.

 “In a nutshell, we need to do a lot better for Calgarians,” Gondek said.

“Going forward, we will do a much better job of explaining what’s happened, the expected timeline to get back to normal, and what we need from you in the way of water conservation.”

During a Monday update, Gondek also thanked residents for cutting their water usage during the crisis.

“Calgarians, you have been incredible in cutting your water usage. I can tell you yesterday, on Sunday, June 9th, you used—this is a preliminary number—457 million litres of water, which is a very good news story.

“Last Wednesday, as an example, before the break happened, we were consuming 650 million litres; so, we have a very significant reduction in water usage.”

Following the break, the supply is now only 615 million litres per day.

Gondek further outlined more strategies for minimizing water usage, such as limiting toilet flushes and taking short or intermittent showers.

The break to end all breaks

The reason Calgarians are currently rationing water is due to a single critical water main that was so interconnected and essential that the entire system nearly collapsed after it ruptured, immediately plunging the city into Stage 4 water restrictions and a city-wide fire ban.

This is all at a time when Calgary is seeing near-record rainfall, the irony of which has not been lost on Calgarians.

For many, this has highlighted severe oversights made by the city and the fact that the water system is long overdue for tune-ups.

Fortunately, it appears repairs to the critical water main will be finished on Thursday; however, whether the system will be updated afterwards remains to be seen.