An Ottawa city councillor wants to speed up a program that would take more than a century to replace all the lead water pipes in the city.

"I think waiting 106 years is far too long," said Coun. Alex Cullen Monday. "So I think having this done, cleaned up in five years is a reasonable thing to do."

Cullen plans to bring forward a motion at Wednesday's city council meeting to accelerate the program, which currently replaces the pipes in 150 houses a year. There are 16,000 connected to city water mains by lead pipes.

If the lead dissolves in the water and ingested it could cause health problems such as developmental delays in children.

Replacing all 16,000 is expected to cost about $70 million, and speeding up the process would lead to higher water bills for residents.

But Cullen said the alternative — exposing children and pregnant women to a possible health risk — is "simply unacceptable."

The city recommends that people with lead pipes flush them daily, but Cullen said most people aren't aware and don't do that.