{"id":788891,"date":"2026-07-08T19:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T19:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/788891\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T19:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T19:40:11","slug":"montreal-waters-plants-despite-urging-residents-to-cut-back-on-consumption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/788891\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal waters plants despite urging residents to cut back on consumption"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the City of Montreal urged residents to cut back on water consumption<\/a> this summer because of the deterioration of one of its key water mains under Atwater Ave., it continues to water plants on that very street.<\/p>\n

The city called on Montrealers to drastically cut their water consumption by reducing outdoor watering and taking shorter showers at the end of May, when it announced that an inspection revealed a 48-inch pipe that feeds the McTavish water reservoir is in critical condition.<\/p>\n

The pipe is located under Atwater Ave. between Sherbrooke and Workman Sts. and is one of four pipes that feed the reservoir, which is one of the city\u2019s main drinking water basins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are facing an exceptional situation that requires equally exceptional measures,\u201d Alan DeSousa, the city\u2019s executive committee member responsible for mobility and infrastructure, said at a news conference at the time. \u201cThe city will do its part with targeted measures, but the success of the operation also depends on a collective effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite urging residents to cut back, sprinklers in the median planters on Atwater Ave. remained operational, a steady stream of water flowing down the street this week.<\/p>\n

\"ASprinklers water flowers and plants along Atwater Ave. near St-Antoine St. in Montreal, on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. Tim Snow \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n

Asked about the decision to keep watering the plants, the city said the Ville-Marie borough shut down all lawn irrigation systems \u201cas a matter of leadership and good example,\u201d but chose to maintain watering systems for vegetation such as annual plants \u201con a minimal schedule, to ensure their survival.\u201d <\/p>\n

The city added that the threshold of drinking water consumption that must not be exceeded until work is complete is 1.45 billion litres per day, and that over the past few weeks, daily consumption has remained beneath that mark. This week, consumption has varied between 1.19 billion and 1.26 billion litres.<\/p>\n

\"ASprinklers water flowers and plants along Atwater Ave. at St-Antoine St. in Montreal, on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. Tim Snow \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n

The city said the first phase of work on the pipe \u2014\u00a0the repair of a valve to isolate the part requiring maintenance \u2014\u00a0was completed at the end of May. The second phase, which involves replacing parts of the pipeline, began last week, when a pipe segment was delivered.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis work, which must be carried out consecutively at various locations along Atwater Ave., is expected to last several weeks and be completed by the end of the summer,\u201d the city said.<\/p>\n

\"ASprinklers water flowers and plants along Atwater Ave. at St-Antoine St. in Montreal, on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. Tim Snow \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the City of Montreal urged residents to cut back on water consumption this summer because of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-788891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788891","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=788891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}