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  • Stuck in the 60s: Why is City View digging ditches for drainage instead of sewers?

Stuck in the 60s: Why is City View digging ditches for drainage instead of sewers?

The system has slowly erroded after Nepean amalgamated with Ottawa

Ottawa is digging into a decades-old drainage problem in Nepean by launching a multi-year rehabilitation project to restore City View’s aging ditch system. But some residents are questioning why the city is investing in out-of-date infrastructure instead of building new pipes. 

The ditches were first dug in the 1960s when the then rural community near Merivale Road began sprouting up in what was once sprawling farm lands. When it rained, the water would either evaporate or flow through the open culverts to a pond.

But since then many of the ditches have been filled in – some legally, others not – which is causing basements to flood. 

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