Another water pipe burst recently in the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver’s poorest neighbourhood, creating rivers of sewage and human waste that flowed in the street for several blocks. This is just another episode in the series of decades-old water pipes, in utter disrepair, bursting in various parts of the city. Last June in the False Creek neighbourhood (a centrally located and popular walking area for Vancouver locals during the summer) a water main with a supposed 100-year lifespan burst after only 26 years, the cause of which is still unknown.
While the Vancouver city council has been focused on brutalizing the city’s most vulnerable populations, slashing the transit budget, and increasing police spending, they have completely neglected vital infrastructure. These city councillors are only concerned with preserving their own careers, and have no interest in maintaining the infrastructure that people desperately need. If workers controlled the maintenance and production of infrastructure, we could actually build a society that puts the working class and average Canadians first.
Teddy P., Vancouver
