reintroduce water restrictions<\/a> across the city beginning March 9 for around four weeks until early April, it said on Friday. The restrictions call for no outdoor water use and recommends indoor water conservation measures as well.<\/p>\nThe restrictions are needed because the Bearspaw south feeder main \u2014 a pipe key to Calgary’s water supply \u2014 is being shut down to reinforce up to nine particularly deteriorated segments. The Bearspaw has suffered catastrophic failures twice since 2024, resulting in significant flooding each time in northwest Calgary. <\/p>\n
All of Calgary will be affected by the pipe\u2019s shutdown, but businesses in Bowness and Montgomery, near where the pipe\u2019s catastrophic failures have occurred, have felt the brunt of flooding and water restrictions in the past two years.<\/p>\n
Sahoud Abbasi, owner of the restaurant Pizza Bae in the city’s northwest Montgomery neighbourhood, is supportive of the city’s repairs.<\/p>\n
But he noted the water main breaks and flooding have made it difficult to keep his restaurant afloat since it opened in November.<\/p>\n
![\"Sahoud](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771900995_879_default.jpg\")
Sahoud Abbasi opened the restaurant Pizza Bae in November in northwest Calgary, but has had a difficult time keeping his business afloat through water main breaks and ensuing restrictions. (Brendan Coulter\/CBC)<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know how we\u2019re going to survive. Our livelihood is not looking safe here in Calgary,” said Abbasi.<\/p>\n
Repeated hits to northwest Calgary businesses<\/p>\n
The latest hit to his business came from a smaller water main break nearby on Bowness Road, called in to the city on Friday. Water service was turned off the next day for more than eight hours while repairs were made to the pipe, affecting 21 businesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a surprise, but I\u2019m not surprised anymore. It keeps coming back. It\u2019s not going to leave us alone until this is fully repaired,” Abbasi said.<\/p>\n
It’s not just new businesses in the area feeling the strain of Calgary’s water issues. <\/p>\n
Kelly Van Spankeren works at Bon A-Pet-Treat! bakery, which has been open in Bowness for 20 years. She’s understanding of how important the city’s work on the Bearspaw is, but noted water restrictions and construction in the area have been a challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve honestly been struggling since COVID, so having this come up the last couple of years, it has slowed down traffic a lot,” said Van Spankeren.<\/p>\n
![\"Zo\u00eb](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771900995_449_default.jpg\")
Zo\u00eb Decker with the Bowness Community Association said she’d like to see clearer and more consistent communication from the city for residents in her neighbourhood. (Brendan Coulter\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Zo\u00eb Decker, communications coordinator for the Bowness Community Association, said she loves how proactive the city is being on fixing the Bearspaw. <\/p>\n
But she added she knows Bowness residents are feeling fatigued from one disruption after another.<\/p>\n
Residents hope for clearer communication<\/p>\n
The city’s ongoing response to the most recent Bearspaw failure includes building a new parallel pipe that the city said last week is still on schedule to be completed by December.<\/p>\n
With this construction planned for later this year, Decker said slow responses from the city have been an issue after residents ask questions about the city’s work.<\/p>\n
Specifically, Decker noted residents want to hear more about how open-cut construction planned to construct a new Bearspaw pipe from May to October this year will work. <\/p>\n
The city has said the work will span 34th Avenue N.W. from 73rd Street to 89th Street. But residents still have questions about how this will affect how they access their homes and neighbourhoods and how it will disrupt day-to-day life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re big champions for the city and getting this pipe fixed up, but if we\u2019re not getting those reasons for why this is happening, then it just kind of feels like a big let-down,\u201d Decker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely don\u2019t envy the city for their job that they\u2019re having to take on, and Mayor [Jeromy] Farkas. But it\u2019s really frustrating.”<\/p>\n
Decker said residents just want clearer and more consistent communication from the city to know what to expect as work continues.<\/p>\n
Abbasi argued the city can do more for businesses. While city councillors have visited his restaurant and other nearby businesses, Abbasi said organizing block parties or allowing more advertisements and more signage on city property are some ways the community could be better supported.<\/p>\n
Farkas said businesses should be prepared this year \u2014 not just for planned Bearspaw shutdowns in the spring and fall, but also for the potential of more water restrictions stemming from possible failures in the pipe that could still occur this year.<\/p>\n
Calgary\u2019s infrastructure services team said via email Monday it understands the concerns from people living nearby where its construction and reinforcement work is occurring.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlans are moving forward rapidly due to the urgent nature of this work, and we are doing our best to get information out to the community as it becomes available,\u201d the city\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n
The city said it will continue to provide construction notices by mail, through information sessions and through email newsletters to subscribers. It will also provide updates via the city\u2019s website<\/a> and 311 and said city staff will door-knock to provide more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 5 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-495371","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n