Editor:
In the aftermath of January floods, SCRD water meter installations will begin in 2016. Popularity and governmental designations of “best practice” are given as the top reasons to meter water here on the Sunshine Coast, a temperate rainforest with over three feet of rain falling in any given year. The reality is that our local government through neglectful management of an abundant natural resource has left us short. Instead of focusing on infrastructure needs such as retention and filtration, they’ve chosen to designate our clean drinking water, access to which is a human right recognized the by United Nations, as a commodity. As a taxpayer you now pay for water, not just infrastructure, as if water were “gasoline and electricity.”
Clean drinking water should be equally available to all people regardless of their economic station. Making it a commodity means that those who are financially well off will be able to use water as needed for whatever they wish, regardless of conservation efforts, penalties be damned. One only needs to look to California and West Vancouver for examples of abuse.
According to studies, installation of a water meter will typically result in a short-term reduction in water demand. However, this initial reduction in demand can only be sustained through education programs and increasingly punitive pricing for water. Fair taxation is a superior solution, in line with Canadian values. We’re not Americans. Let’s not fall into the trap of user-pay.
Water distribution needs to be handled with fairness and consideration for growth. We have plenty of water. What we need is infrastructure that serves our community, not the implementation of boilerplate solutions handed down by bureaucrats that turn water into a commodity. The SCRD must treat clean water as a universal right, available to everyone regardless of ability to pay.
Kathy Para, Gibsons
