Overview
- Doctors and nurses describe carrying out procedures without running water at the Inuulitsivik Health Centre and Inukjuak clinic, relying on bottled water or hand sanitizer for basic handwashing.
- A weeks-long outage in Puvirnituq last spring, triggered by a frozen pipe and impassable roads for water trucks, forced air evacuations of hospital patients and halted routine admissions.
- Public health officials confirmed probes into worrying community-acquired pneumonia during the shortage, with clinicians also reporting a surge of gastroenteritis cases.
- Residents face steep costs for bottled water, about $15 for 4 litres, leaving some families unable to keep children hydrated or maintain hygiene, which clinicians say leads to dehydration and infections.
- Health workers say persistent water insecurity is pushing colleagues to leave and shortening tenures, compounding longstanding retention challenges and straining morale.