Richmond ice cream shop better prepared for boil water advisory

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Several businesses across Richmond served customers with little or no water as they waited for the final test results to lift the boil water advisory.

On Thursday May 29, Richmond Mayor Danny Avula announced that the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) officially lifted the Boil Water Advisory. This followed the results of two sets of compliance samples, both of which came back negative, passing the required tests. 

Ruby Scoops Ice Cream & Sweets shop found a way to keep the sweets coming amid the boil water advisory.

“I was able to get my hands on some purified water, so we're going to be using that for service to make cones,” said Owner Rabia Kamara.

During January’s winter storm, power outages forced Kamara to dump more than 80 tons of ice cream from her freezer. Kamara also couldn't make new ice cream because of the water crisis.

“We're boiling water right now so we can make ice cream this evening because we have to have water to clean out the machine,” said Kamara. “Just like the sanitation portion of things, the water needs to be usable.” 

Kamara expressed she uses water for cleaning utensils, washing dishes, making cones and changing water in the dipping wells. She said incidents like this show how some can take clean water for granted. She hopes city leaders also feel the same.

“It can't keep happening," said Kamara. "That's difficult for everyone that lives and works in the city and it's not something that you expect to happen.”

Kamara said she does have faith in the new administration to fix the long-standing water infrastructure problems.