YELLOWKNIFE (February 9, 2026) - The Chief Environmental Health Officer is advising all residents in Sachs Harbour to boil their drinking water for at least one minute.

This advisory is precautionary and is due to frozen intake and truck-fill pipes following extreme winter conditions.  The treatment plant currently cannot draw water into the plant and therefore cannot treat the water. Manual chlorination is being carried out, and there have been no illnesses associated with drinking water reported in the community. 

The community, in collaboration with MACA, is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. The Chief Environmental Health Officer, in collaboration with the community government, will continue to monitor the situation and will provide formal notice to lift this advisory as soon as it has been resolved.

Please be advised that this advisory is issued for precautionary reasons only.

All water used for drinking, preparing food, hot and cold beverages, ice cubes, washing fruits and vegetables, and dental hygiene must be boiled. This is of particular importance in the case of the preparation of infant formulas. Do not drink water from public drinking fountains. It is not necessary to boil water used for other household purposes. You may shower, bathe or wash using tap water, but avoid swallowing it.

Alternatives to boiling water include using bottled water, or water that has been processed by one of the following methods:

• Distillation
• Reverse osmosis
• Filtered using a filter size of 1 micron absolute or less

Note: “Brita” type drinking water filters, which use activated carbon filters, are not a safe method for treating water during a Boil Water Advisory. They do not disinfect the water.

Answers to frequently asked questions: Frequently Asked Questions During a Boil Water Advisory | Health and Social Services (gov.nt.ca)

For more information, contact:
Andrew Wind
Manager, Communications
Health and Social Services
HSSMedia@gov.nt.ca