The City of Lethbridge has unveiled new water drinking stations throughout the city as part of a pilot project.
The stations, connected to fire hydrants, are located at Legacy Park, Henderson Lake, Nicholas Sheran, and Galt Gardens, and are a result of budget initiative C-2 from the 2023-26 Operating Budget.
City Councillor Nick Paladino was the one who brought up the pilot project.
“Access to drinking water is important to the general population but also, it’s perhaps most important to the vulnerable members of our community,” says Paladino.
“I look forward to see how the pilot progresses through the summer and how the community uses them.”
The pilot project cost $15,000 altogether which includes labour, materials, and installation and funds were allocated from from the City’s MRSR.
Jeremy Charlesworth, Waste & Wastewater project manager, says the design is based off another city and crews also installed a water meter inside to track the usage.
“We based them on a design from the City of Edmonton and used an employee from the water treatment plant to assemble them and then used our crews to install them,” says Charlesworth.
“It’s spring loaded so you can turn it on and it will automatically turn-off and they’re installed in four locations across the City.”
Charlesworth says when the season is over, the stations will be unbolted and stored away for winter and will be back out next summer.
As of Friday, two of the stations are usable and the remaining two, Galt Gardens and Henderson Lake, will be active by end of day Monday.