WINNIPEG — The City of Winnipeg’s preliminary 2019 budget calls for an investment of $31.1 million this year into the city’s sewer overflow and basement flood management strategy.
It’s part of a $169-million six-year plan to reduce such events.
Capital funding in the 2019 preliminary budget included implementation of a Combined Sewer Overflow Plan, mitigation of combined sewer overflow events by upgrading sewers, chambers, weirs and related works, and sewer relief work related to basement flooding.
The $31.1 million in funding is a 30 per cent increase from the 2018 capital budget.
“Addressing the incidence of overflow events and improving the quality of our city’s rivers are priorities for many Winnipeg residents. This year’s preliminary budget proposes to invest a significant amount of resources to address combined sewer overflow events as well as further protect against basement flooding,” Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman said in a statement.
Winnipeg’s sewer system is designed to collect both land drainage such as rainwater and snowmelt and wastewater such as sewage from homes and businesses. During wet weather events, a release from the City of Winnipeg stated, the system is “often unable to handle all of the water entering the system and it overflows directly to the rivers. These overflow events protect basements from flooding.”
Since 1977 more than $330 million has been invested in sewer system improvements with approximately 1,037 kilometres of combined sewers in Winnipeg making up 31 per cent of the total sewer system.
The City of Winnipeg is slated to pass its 2019 budget today (Wednesday).
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