A new water reservoir in Windsor which will act as a 'plan B' is nearing completion.
Officials at the Windsor Utilities Commission and media were given a tour of the $24-million facility off George Ave. Monday before it fills up with water next week.
It will hold 35-million litres of water and will allow for the other reservoir, which was built in the 1950s, to be refurbished.
"So before anything catastrophic happens, we want to make sure we have a backup to that reservoir so we can repair it," says Gary Rossi, vice-president of water operations at Enwin Utilities Ltd. "Obviously in an emergency, there would be some rationing that would happen, so you would get several days, if not a week out of the current supply that we have today."
Norbert Poggio, Director of Water Engineering inside the water reservoir. April 23, 2018 (Photo by AM800's Teresinha Medeiros)
The large reservoir will be filled with water beginning in the next few weeks, and then it will be tested.
"There will be inspections so we do hire divers that are specialized in this sort of thing that do inspections every so often and they go in and make sure everything is to standard and specification," says Rossi.
Rossi expects the reservoir will be operational in late June.
Inside @CityWindsorON new drinking water reservoir which will hold 35-million litres of water. Inside the belly of the reservoir. @ENWINUtilities @AM800News #cklw pic.twitter.com/UCiCoxT21S
— Teresinha Medeiros (@tmedeiros800) April 23, 2018