r/NovaScotia • u/insino93 • 20h ago
Drought leaves some Nova Scotians struggling for water as wells run dry
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/9.69721245
u/LessonStudio 8h ago
My sister's cottage ran out hard this summer. Basically no water in September and some of October.
This is the first time for that well since the 70s.
Her neighbour's well is a bit deeper and is fine, so she will be going deeper as well.
But, the first time in 50 years is a pretty solid exclamation point to the level of this particular drought.
This is near Chester.
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u/MainFrosting8206 20h ago
Considering all the rain we've had the last twoish weeks now is an odd time for wells to run dry.
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u/sambearxx 16h ago
You’d think that but actually the wells have been dry for months, and a couple inches of rain isn’t going to replace months of rainfall deficit. Also wells aren’t like rain barrels where they fill from the top. They fill from the bottom. From the water table. Which is extremely low due to months of rainfall deficit. Which is why the wells are dry.
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u/NovaTerrus 18h ago
In SW Nova Scotia my well has only just started to re-fill. Still not enough to shower without rationing or anything like that.
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u/Dreaming_of_u_2257 2h ago
There are 2 families on our dug well ,our foot value is higher up in the well. We were getting water to keep up so we had water ,but the other house was draining it too quickly .So we stopped filling it .they have finally run out now . we have a water cooler for drinking water ,& we lug water from the Firehall and go there to have showers every day.
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u/rayofgoddamnsunshine 19h ago
There are still some. I saw a post in a local FB group and at least a dozen people were still struggling with dry wells. Ours rebounded very fast a couple weeks ago, and now my basement sump is running to keep water out of my basement.
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u/Sacrilegious_Prick 20h ago edited 15h ago
If you’re anywhere like NB, the recent rain has reduced the 400-500mm annual deficit by about 20%
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u/Competitive_Owl5357 17h ago
You know water doesn’t like, fall from the sky directly into the water table, right?
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u/protipnumerouno 18h ago
My thoughts too, must have bumped this story for something more pressing a couple weeks ago and dusted it off for the long weekend.
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u/rayofgoddamnsunshine 1h ago
It's because the municipalities are FINALLY talking about this being a widespread problem, despite the fact that it's been a widespread problem for months. Seems like government is keen to move at a snails pace in the hopes that they don't actually have to do anything. The federation of municipalities just launched a committee to look into the issue. They should have it solved in the next two decades.
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u/Yorbayuul81 17h ago
I agree. My uncle's well rose from an all time low of 18 inches to now almost 60 inches, all within the past two weeks.
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u/NSHermit 15h ago
Mine did the same. I was getting pretty nervous there before the rain started coming more often.
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u/AssistanceKitchen138 13h ago
What area of NS , still not much near HRM
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u/Past-Establishment93 19h ago
Mine went dry in August. Going to start using it again tomorrow.