Editor:
Estimates of Canada’s renewable fresh water supply vary from 5.6 to nine per cent of the total world supply. Canada’s current population is under 38 million (0.5 per cent of the world’s population) and it possesses seven per cent of the world’s usable fresh water supply. So, Canada has a surplus of usable fresh water.
Since the jurisdiction operating a water system is also its own customer, certain water flows are accounted for but NOT as a revenue source. This includes firefighting services (including hydrants), park sprinkler and irrigation systems and local government-owned pools and recreation facilities. All are a potential for leakage. The average single-family dwelling has one small water connection whereas these services all require much larger connections to the system. So quite clearly the primary source for leaks is municipal.
Water meters are one method of detecting leaks in a waterworks system, but not the most cost effective. Of the many technologies available, acoustic leak detection is the most popular and economical. Why have other methods not been explored? Could it be because there is no revenue stream for the waterworks authority? Might that be why there is such a push for water meters? And once installed the water rates will, no doubt, continue to rise yearly.
The SCRD should not be wasting 7,250,000 tax dollars on a myopic strategy that has no long-term benefit for the district, other than as a revenue source. If the leakage problem is as severe as touted, funds should, long ago, have been invested in an “acoustic leak detection” program.
Time and money must be invested in creating plans for the development a long-term water supply. Once we have a secure, year-round water supply, then we need to control leakage and then, maybe meterage.
Ed & Rani Kaczmarek, Sechelt
