Editor:
It is that time of year again when the SCRD so unabashedly demonstrates to the community their lack of effective planning when it comes to water resources. Here we are, after a year of normal, or close to normal, rainfall – yet the SCRD has declared the situation “acute.” Since this is one of the major responsibilities of this level of government, it should be the one they concentrate on getting right. Yet they fail again.
They implore us to conserve water, suggesting that it is a scarce resource (as it may well be in other parts of Canada). The SCRD passes on the rally cry to conserve water as it is the “green” thing to do. That we live in a temperate rainforest doesn’t seem to affect their thinking. I am disheartened to learn that some of our citizens are resorting to drilling water wells on their land as a way of gaining independence from the SCRD’s edicts. Yet that is precisely an example of a scarce resource we should be preserving. The SCRD pursues policies, through conscientious planning or through neglect, that result in citizens choosing less green alternatives. Their campaign to install water meters, instead of investing in an effective water distribution system, is misguided thinking and a complete waste of taxpayer money.
I do believe in living “green,” which is why I expect the SCRD to take advantage of what Mother Nature has given us aplenty – water that falls from the sky. After all, the lakes above us are effectively “rain barrels” that collect this abundant resource. It is the SCRD’s job to redistribute it.
Steve Drinkwater, Sechelt
