Blog

Notes from the field

Shorter, more frequent updates from our technicians, apprentices, and community partners — the day-to-day of closing the last mile.

A cabin dusted in snow during a Manitoba winter

Field Notes · July 12, 2026

What a -38°C cistern repair actually looks like

Our Cistern Sanitation Squad walks through a mid-winter emergency callout near Norway House — thawing a frozen intake line before a family's tank ran dry, and what it taught us about staging tools for cold-weather response.

Read the story →

Aerial view of forest beside a lake near a monitored community

June 28, 2026

Piloting smart sensors in 40 households

Early results from our first cistern-monitoring pilot, and the one false alarm that taught us the most.

Young apprentice paddling a canoe down a river during fieldwork

June 14, 2026

An apprentice's first season on the water team

Seventeen-year-old apprentice Dez Monias on her first summer testing water samples back home.

Close-up of tools used to install a reverse osmosis filter

May 30, 2026

Why we chose RO over UV for most households

A field comparison of two filtration technologies, and the maintenance trade-offs that decided it.

Water operator examining a sample during a training course

May 9, 2026

The relief grant that let one operator take a real vacation

For the first time in six years, a Manitoba water operator took two weeks off — without the plant going unstaffed.

Canoe resting on a river near a community gathering spot

April 22, 2026

The hydration station that changed recess

How one school-based refill station cut bottled water use to almost zero within a month.

Solar-powered filtration array deployed in the field

April 3, 2026

72 hours: deploying a solar pod after a plant failure

A timeline of our fastest emergency response yet, from the first call to water flowing again.

Have a story from your community?

We'd love to feature it. Reach out to our community support line.