Some Winnipeg community members armed with shovels and ice chippers waded through water in an attempt to clear frozen drains and catch basins, as spring thawing caused flooding in parts of the city over the weekend. 

Bridgwater resident Gurashish Singh said he and a neighbour were chipping away at a frozen grate in a back lane on Saturday after water started pooling earlier in the week — reaching knee height in places.

“It was as if I was living in a sewer” due to the smell of the stagnant water, Singh said.

The water level made it difficult to drive his car out of the garage and one of his neighbours had water going into their home. 

“You couldn’t see the road there. It was all water,” Singh said.

He tried to chip away at the ice with a shovel ahead of the weekend but wasn’t able to break through.

He called 311 to get the city to come out but was told the issue should be fixed by the end of the month. 

“Rather than waiting until [the] 30th [of] March, I [was] like, ‘let’s do it, let’s get rid of it, let’s get back to our business’ and that’s what we did,” Singh said, calling the wait time “unacceptable.”

“I thought that if I don’t do it now, no one will do it,” he said, adding he didn’t want the flooding to potentially get worse and affect more neighbours while waiting for the city to do something.

He and another neighbour waded in the water on Saturday to chip away at the drain. 

“My feet were numb after a point. The water was ice cold,” he said.

Fixing frozen drains should not be a homeowner’s responsibility, said Singh, who thinks the city’s response “could have been better.”

He feels less confident now about calling 311 if spring thawing causes more flooding.

In an email to CBC News, city spokesperson Pam McKenzie said municipal crews are “working around the clock in all areas of the city” to clear snow and ice and thaw frozen curb inlets, catch basins and culverts. 

The city is focused on catch basins where there is a risk of flooding to properties, McKenzie said. 

Waverley West Coun. Janice Lukes, whose ward includes Bridgwater, said pooling snowmelt is an annual spring issue and the city has extra crews out on the streets right now, including steamers and plows working to scrape off layers of ice.

But there are thousands of drains and catch basins across the city and it will take time to address them all, she said, encouraging community members to help, if they’re able. 

“We know that this can be a problem. If residents are aware that their catch basin is plugged, if they can go out and poke away at it to help unplug it, that really helps,” she said.

Tyler Crichton, who grew up in Winnipeg’s St. James area, gathered a group of friends to unblock drains in his old neighbourhood on Saturday. 

Armed with several different tools, including a pitchfork, ice chipper and an axe, the group worked on about six drains over the span of three hours. 

“Me [and] my friends just wanted to get together and do something good for the community. You see all the drains out there and they’re causing a problem,” said Crichton, adding spring flooding happens regularly in St. James.  

He said they posted their offer to help in a neighbourhood Facebook group and quickly got responses pointing out areas where water was pooling around frozen drains. Then they got to work, driving around the area and searching for drains hidden under water. 

There’s a little sense of excitement when you’re able to clear a drain and watch the water levels lower, he said. 

“This is a little thing that you can do and it’s also just a lot of fun. If you can get out there and start moving some water and have some fun while you’re doing it, I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” said Crichton, adding the city “could do a better job” at addressing frozen drains.