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Winnipeg Families will Save Enough Water to Fill 700 Olympic Swimming Pools with Help from Non-profit Contractor: Mackintosh, Irvin-Ross

By the end of this year, a non-profit contractor will have helped Winnipeg families conserve more than 1.74 billion litres of water through bathroom plumbing retrofits, enough to fill 700 Olympic-sized swimming pools, Conservation and Water Stewardship Minister Gord Mackintosh and Housing and Community Development Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross said today, while marking International World Water Day.

Building Urban Industries for Local Development (BUILD Inc.) has been installing new water-efficient toilets and showers in inner-city homes since 2006 and expects to have 9,500 installations completed by year’s end, said Mackintosh.

“BUILD’s success in saving this phenomenal amount of water is helping protect our precious resources for future generations,” the minister said.  “We know many countries are already facing water shortages but in Manitoba we are lucky to still have some of the greatest freshwater resources in the world.”

In addition to being a contractor, BUILD runs a trades-based employment program that trains Aboriginal and inner-city residents who would otherwise face employment obstacles.  Its retrofitting services, which include insulating homes, have helped save inner-city households more than $225 a year in water costs and about $475 a year for heating costs, said Irvin-Ross, adding BUILD’s work last year alone saved Manitoba Housing more than $300,000 in utility bills.

“The opportunity to partner with an organization that recognizes the value of our province’s natural resources and our inner-city’s human resources in unique,” she said.  “BUILD does phenomenal work employing neighbourhood people, improving the quality of our housing and saving government money by reducing heat and water costs.”

The ministers noted that, in 2012, BUILD completed 2,500 retrofits for Manitoba Housing, more than in any year since the organization was incorporated.

“World Water Day offers us the opportunity to celebrate the economic and environmental benefits of the retrofitting work our trainees and apprentices do in lower-income Winnipeg households,” said Tyler Pearce, BUILD’s director of operations.  “Our organization has grown each year, while the environmental footprint of our neighbourhood has shrunk.”