Excerpt from a Vancouver Province article

“Given the escalating concerns about water availability in many regions of the province having effective regulations in place for water use and conservation is absolutely critical. Three key regulation areas that must be addressed under the Water Sustainability Act (WSA) are water pricing, monitoring and reporting, and ensuring sufficient flows to maintain healthy ecosystems.

The province has set an extremely low fee for water use, despite widespread public support for high-enough rates. Currently, B.C. has the lowest water rates in the entire country. The province has an opportunity to capture the value of this precious resource to create conservation incentives, and to fund effective implementation of the WSA, including water sustainability planning.

B.C. also needs to bolster its approach to water monitoring and reporting. The list of things we don’t know about our water is far too long, including how much water we actually use and where all of British Columbia’s aquifers are.”

Rosie Simms & Eliel Hindert: Rock-bottom snowpack an early warning of water issues
July 29, 2015