No drop in Calgarians’ water usage despite water main break

Published on Jan. 3, 2026, 1:29 AM

City says goal is to have pipe repaired within 2 weeks

A day after officials first asked Calgarians to reduce their water use in the wake of Tuesday’s catastrophic water main break, the city says it is not seeing any real reduction in usage.

That means the city is “still very much in the red zone,” Mayor Jeromy Farkas said during a update Thursday, with higher than sustainable demand on the system.

Typically, the city has about 600 million litres of water stored underground on a daily basis. That dropped to 459 million litres after the break of the Bearspaw south feeder main.

While those numbers rebounded slightly, more water needs to be saved so that supply is not depleted in the event of another incident, said Michael Thompson, the city’s infrastructure services general manager.

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Calgarians have been asked to reduce their water consumption wherever possible, by taking showers for three minutes or less, limiting toilet flushing and running dishwashers and washing machines only when full.

Each minute shaved off a shower could potentially save six to eight litres of water, said Chris Huston, the city’s manager of the drinking water distribution system.