More than 100,000 residents in the Texas border city of El Paso were left with little to no water after a main break over the weekend, with operations not expected to return to normal until midweek, officials said.
The break in the 36-inch water main line occurred late Saturday night in El Paso, which has a population of about 700,000. Gilbert Trejo, an official with El Paso Water, described it as “an event of unprecedented proportion”, noting that the impact was exacerbated by the pipeline’s design and the connections of smaller lines.
A boil water notice has been issued, and water distribution centres have been set up. Classes were cancelled on Monday at more than a dozen schools in the El Paso Independent School District due to the outage, while other schools remained open but under the boil water notice.
Trejo said that about 38,000 customer connections were put out of service, affecting more than 100,000 residents, and that over 15 water reservoirs “essentially drained out”. The cause of the break remains unknown, and Trejo urged patience as repairs continue.
