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Does someone have to die before the city gets on with building new water treatment plants?

Saint John city councillor Stephen Chase recently asked this question at a Telegraph-Journal editorial board meeting. It might sound alarmist, but the possibility of water-borne sickness is hardly fear mongering.

Over the last four years, Saint John has had several boil water orders - two caused by water muddiness, and another by E. coli. One of the strains of this bacteria caused the death of seven people in Walkerton, Ont., in 2000 and made hundreds more ill.

Saint John Water can't prevent certain chemicals and bacteria from going through the taps if the source at the lakes is contaminated. Extensive testing is used to catch problems, but what happens to people who don't hear the boil warnings? Their health is left to chance.

After years of neglect, the pipes are old and rotten, causing built-up filth to break off into tap water. The archaic treatment plants rely on coarse screens and heavy chlorine - what people jokingly call removing the twigs and fish, and supercharging the water with swimming pool chemicals.

Saint John Water estimates that improving the piping network and building modern filtration plants will cost up to $140 million and take until 2015. Put another way, that's nearly $600 for every Saint Johner. Imagine paying that much while enduring boil orders for seven more years.

There is a way out, and it's not just another bailout from Ottawa and the province. The answer lies in the model followed by the town of Brockton, Ont., which includes Walkerton.

Brockton looked to private industry to solve its water woes. It now has a private-public partnership that guarantees safe water and decent prices. People in the small town don't trust publicly run utilities to deliver safe water after what happened in 2000. Mayor Charlie Bagnato reports that prices have only gone up three per cent in the last five years, and the water easily beats national drinking water guidelines.

Some people will still argue that greedy private interests should never be allowed to control a precious resource like water.

But that's where a good contract comes in. A public utility can retain control by doing a careful independent study of projected costs and then ask companies to submit bids. Ideally, it would be early on in the process, so more private companies get involved. They want to make as much money as they can, with as big a piece of the overall project as possible.

Guarantees could be built in for quick construction and the highest water quality. If the selected company doesn't deliver, it's penalized through the contract.

Many water plants in North America are run by big companies with vast experience. They have the know-how to design and build plants more effectively. They don't win more contracts if municipalities are unhappy with their work, adding pressure to succeed. As a bonus, they often agree to hire locals from public utilities because the workers have a good understanding of their water systems.

Rather than the city's borrowing more money it doesn't have, private industry could put up the big cash. Rates could be guaranteed for several years, and any reserve funds stashed away for future repairs, something that didn't happen enough in Saint John.

The alternative is to continue letting government do it all. What this usually means is delays, cost overruns and facilities that deliver water no better than what a private company could slake your thirst with.

Having safe water shouldn't take until 2015. It's time Saint John looked at places such as Walkerton that had far worse problems and now have far better water.

John Chilibeck is a Telegraph-Journal reporter. He writes about issues that affect the Saint John region. He can be reached at chilibeck.john@telegraphjournal.com or by calling 645-3267. His column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.