More than two million residents on Canada's Pacific coast puzzled on Friday over a warning they might normally associate with the Third World: don't drink the water.
Health officials issued a boil-water advisory for the Vancouver-area after a storm stirred up silt in the region's reservoirs and increased the risk of bacteria-borne disease.
No illnesses have been reported -- and officials said no bacteria had actually been found -- but residents were told not to use water for drinking, brushing teeth or washing fruit and vegetables unless it had been boiled first.
The advisory issued on Thursday quickly emptied store shelves of bottled water and forced restaurants and coffee shops in Canada's third largest city to turn away customers.
"Don't bother, they don't have any coffee," said Sara, a panhandler outside a downtown Tim Hortons Inc. restaurant, as she directed confused commuters to the few places where they could get their morning caffeine fix.
"This is all really stupid," she added.
Across the street in a normally busy Starbucks Corp. shop, the staff stood around with nothing to do.
The boil-water advisory was issued after heavy rains on Wednesday caused mudslides in the mountains that surround Vancouver, which serve as its source of water supply, dumping silt into reservoirs already churned up by winds gusting at more than 100 km/h (62 mph).
Turbidity levels in the reservoirs jumped to unprecedented levels, and health officials warned the silt could carry high levels of bacteria, and make the chorine used to treat the water less effective.
"It's the worst we've ever seen it," Johnny Carline, water commissioner for the Greater Vancouver Regional District told CBC television.
The district, which supplies about a billion liters (265 million U.S. gallons) of water per day, is building a new filtration system for its major reservoirs but the facility is not scheduled to be completed until 2007.
The initial boil-water advisory covered about 2.15 million people but officials were about to lift the warning for several communities east of Vancouver by midday on Friday.
It was hoped turbidity levels would return to acceptable levels for the entire area by the end of the weekend, although weather forecasters have warned that another storm was scheduled to hit the region on Sunday.
Environment News
ISTEK Main Products
