UPDATE, 9/20/23, 12:24 P.M.: The water has been turned back on in the city, but the boil advisory continues for the City of St. Martinville. The repairs have been made to the leaks from Tuesday, but the city is still currently working on two leaks on Wednesday.

The Mayor is encouraging everyone to report a leak if found.

ORIGINAL, 9/19/23, 12:07 P.M.: ST. MARTINVILLE, La. (KLFY) – The City of St. Martinville will be shutting water off Tuesday night.

The city-wide water shutdown is needed because of water leaks causing the water tower pressure to drop. Mayor Jason Willis says there are four water leaks that happened at five a.m. today. Not only that, he adds the city has been dealing with water leaks for the last two months.

“Every single day, we’re occurring at least four or five, six leaks. Some of them be small that we can actually fix them without turning the water off that’s what we try to do, but some of them require us to shut the whole city down because we really don’t have a lot of isolated vaults throughout the city to cut off one section of the city at one time,” said Willis.

The mayor says that the city is experiencing a drought unlike ever before, causing the ground to split and pipes to burst.

“Our infrastructure is old. It’s over 30 years old. We do have busted pipes constantly, but nothing of this sort. The drought is causing all of this,” Willis said.

While the city is under a boil advisory until further notice, the mayor says crews are working diligently to fix the water leaks.

“Hopefully, the water wouldn’t be cut off no longer than three or four hours. We will be under a boil advisory. We are currently under one now, and there will be one after the water is cut off at ten. That would probably last for at least two or three days. Hopefully, in the next couple of days, we won’t have any major leaks, and if we do, we can repair them without cutting the water off.”

The mayor says the parish president just signed a state of emergency for the city and hopes they can get some help from the federal government.

All city water will be shut off at 10 p.m., Tuesday evening, for further repairs needed in the city. A boil advisory for the whole city scheduled for after the repairs was moved up to take effect immediately due to the water towers being depleted.