Braid: Blame me if you're angry, Farkas says, but failure to cut water use could cost lives

Jeromy Farkas is a worried mayor. Sometimes, he sounds downright desperate.

It’s obvious in his voice, his blizzard of media appearances, his constant repletion of the dire water crisis the city faces.

He has good reason for worry. His water conservation message isn’t breaking through. Consumption is still much too high.

On Tuesday, he said people could die.

“If we do not see significant reductions, at least in the short term, we could potentially be in loss-of-life territory where emergency response (and) pressure into our water hydrants is compromised,” he told the CBC’s Alberta at Noon.

He means that if water use doesn’t drop very soon, firefighters could find their hoses blowing air.

Farkas added that if people are mad and looking for somebody to blame, he’s their guy.

“I am ultimately responsible as mayor. I have been mayor for less than 100 days, but I am personally responsible for this issue. I am personally responsible for working alongside my council colleagues to fix this.

“So, if you’re looking for somebody to blame, you can blame me and you can hold me accountable.”

It’s not often that a politician invites blame, especially when he doesn’t deserve it.

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The plain truth is that water demand remains well into the “red zone” where the whole system becomes vulnerable to failure.

The response to city pleas for conservation was much more positive in June 2024, after the first Bearspaw South pipe eruption.

In a season when much more water is used, consumption dropped into the safe zone, below 485 million litres per day.

Sometimes it bumped up, prompting more cries from city hall, and demand went down again.

People were deeply annoyed and impatient, but in general they complied.

The early response today looks alarmingly different.

Consumption hit 510 million litres on Jan. 5. That’s 25 million too high.

Despite Farkas’ efforts, demand has been trending upward since a low interlude on New Year’s Day.

The mayor and his staff, looking for a way to jolt the public, discussed the possibility of an emergency alert to hit cellphones in the affected areas — Calgary, Chestermere, Airdrie, Strathmore and the Tsuut’ina Nation.

That still hadn’t been settled by Tuesday afternoon, but it may happen.

Farkas is full of praise for his councillors. He has no interest in picking a fight with anyone, especially Premier Danielle Smith.

She has said that if the province kicks in money, she might want more oversight and involvement in the water system.

“This has got to be unacceptable to the residents of Calgary, to have a pipe that was supposed to last 100 years fail now twice in two years, and to not know that it was coming, and not know when we’re going to see an end to the repairs or an end to the problems. That is a failure, quite frankly, of oversight.”

Farkas does not disagree. He said: “If there’s greater level of investment from the provincial government provided to municipalities, it makes complete sense to me that it would come with greater oversight and accountability.

“I just want to say thank you very much to the premier. She was engaged with me within minutes of the news of the initial break, before we had the depth of understanding what went wrong.

“They are on standby to see how they can support the city when it comes to the infrastructure funding.”

Calgarians are just emerging groggily from the holiday season. Many more may start paying attention to the simple demands for fewer flushes, shorter showers and fuller dishwashers.

If that doesn’t work, we may all get the ultimate warning — a day when the taps go dry.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

X and Bluesky: @DonBraid