New Brunswick·NewMany residents of New Brunswick’s largest island have been left high and dry after this summer’s severe drought, with volunteers scrambling to deliver water to seniors and families.Volunteers have begun to offer free fill-ups for seniors and families in drier straitsSam Farley · CBC News · Posted: Sep 29, 2025 4:41 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoGrand Manan Island is just emerging from its driest summer on record, which has led to dry wells for some residents. (Shane Fowler/CBC)Many residents of New Brunswick’s largest island have been left high and dry after this summer’s severe drought, with volunteers scrambling to deliver water to seniors and families.The island just off the province’s southwest coast experienced its driest summer on record, receiving less than 100 millimetres of rain, according to CBC meteorologist Ryan Snoddon. Wells have run dry and patience has worn thin as some turn to trucking in water for basic needs such as cooking, drinking and bathing. The well at one of Alie Stever’s cottage rental properties has been dry since August, so she pays for it to be refilled every three days. But her house’s well also ran dry, three days after she returned home from the hospital with her newborn baby. “We have a seven-year-old, a four-year-old and then an infant, and so it gets pretty crazy without water. We’ve gone a few times, like, 24 hours without any water,” Stever said in an interview with CBC Radio’s Shift.Recently, she said she’s been relying on a group of residents who have been offering free water fill-ups for seniors and families. The island off southwestern New Brunswick, shown in red just below St. Stephen on this map, was among the driest places in the Maritimes this summer. (Ryan Snoddon/CBC)Citing social media posts, Stever said she’s aware of at least 40 people on the island who’ve said their wells have run completely dry. The island doesn’t have a municipal water system, so Stever said she understands that supplying water is not the village’s responsibility. “However, when there are so many families without water, I would expect that this situation would be taken a bit more seriously [to] have help organized a bit better for these families,” she said. Worries about the coming winterWhile Stever said she appreciates the kindness of volunteers delivering water, she doesn’t feel it’s a sustainable solution for the long term. “That really has to be dealt with before winter in some way, shape or form,” she said, wondering what will happen if the ground freezes while wells are still dry. Getting water for bathing, cooking and drinking has become more complicated for an estimated 40 homes and businesses on Grand Manan. (Chris MacIntyre/CBC)Zackary Hutchings is one of the residents who’s been helping deliver water. With three drilled wells on his land, he’s able to access more water than others who might have shallower, dug wells. Hutchings has been making deliveries to about four people a day for the past month, he said, adding that he’s gotten several calls from mothers crying after their wells ran dry, asking for help. It’s really desperate, honestly.— Zackary Hutchings”Just having [water for] basic needs like a shower and stuff like that is hard for people to get nowadays.”Hutchings said Grand Manan needs significant rain to raise the water table enough to keep wells from running dry again.”If you don’t have water in your well, by the time winter comes, you’re not going to have water in your well at all because it’s just not going to be able to fill up where everything freezes over,” he said. “So it’s really desperate, honestly.”Bonnie Morse, the mayor of Grand Manan, said the village is waiting for funding to study water resources on the island, as it tries to find long-term solutions. (CBC New Brunswick)Hutchings said he would like to see the village administration offer more help, but commended how members of the community have responded.”When people are down and out, this place always comes together,” he said.Village says ‘no one has reached out’Over the weekend, the village posted on social media that residents are responsible for their own wells and that there was limited response when a survey about water levels was sent out on a public alerting app the village uses. “To date, no one has reached out to the village asking for assistance,” the post said.In an interview, Grand Manan Mayor Bonnie Morse said the office has been hearing concerns about dry wells throughout the summer, but most people have dealing with the problem on their own through water conservation or visiting friends who do have water.Morse said the community centre, equipped with public washrooms and showers, has been open to the public all summer. Looking ahead, the village is waiting on funding to complete studies into water supplies around the island to determine potential next steps.”I appreciate people’s frustration because, you know, not having water is — it’s not a good place to be,” she said. If we continue to have dry summers like this, it is going to be an ongoing problem.— Bonnie Morse, mayor of Grand Manan”So it’s made it a little bit difficult maybe to respond as quickly as people would have liked.”Morse added that the village is testing some wells on various properties it owns around the island to see if the water is potable. “If we continue to have dry summers like this, it is going to be an ongoing problem,” she added. “So we need to determine what the issue is and if there is anything that can be done.”ABOUT THE AUTHORSam Farley is a Fredericton-based reporter at CBC New Brunswick. Originally from Boston, he is a journalism graduate of the University of King’s College in Halifax. He can be reached at sam.farley@cbc.caWith files from Shift
Dozens of wells have run dry on Grand Manan as summer drought persists into fall
