While the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) declared Stage 2 outdoor water use restrictions this week, our coastal neighbours were being urged to reduce their total water consumption by 20 per cent or more.
Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and Haida Gwaii have reached Level 3 drought conditions and the provincial government wants municipal, agricultural and industrial users to seriously cut back, anticipating a major water supply shortage in those areas this summer.
Water scarcity is in the news – with California suffocating under an epic drought and Washington state declaring a drought emergency last month – and the SCRD reports “a much higher than usual call volume with concerns about the dry summer ahead and residential overwatering.”
The concerns about overwatering are valid. Consumption in May and June has risen sharply compared to previous years and the SCRD is appealing to the community to “act swiftly” to curb outdoor water use.
We can start by abiding by the Stage 2 restrictions (see www.scrd.ca for details), which are not onerous because low-intensity watering methods are still permitted. We can also exceed Stage 2 by cutting back on indoor use. Taking shorter showers and running the taps less will all help. Stage 2 we can handle.
It gets serious when it starts to affect agriculture and industry and block new development. For our coastal neighbours, the next step will be a Level 4 drought. That means water permits and industrial water licences could be temporarily suspended.
We’re in better shape so far this year on the Sunshine Coast, but that could change quickly; we came perilously close to a water crisis in October 2012 when the SCRD declared Stage 4 restrictions, banning all outdoor water use. At the time, local government was under pressure to start regulating high-use businesses like car washes. On the Coast today, some residents are opposing new development on the grounds that it would be an irresponsible drain on our limited water supply.
The SCRD is focused on the problem, but all the fixes are expensive and in the future.
We can hope this summer will be like the summer of 1976, when it rained virtually every day during the month of July and there was no shortage of water. But we can’t count on it.
In the meantime, we have more reasons than we can count to be vigilant about our water.
