Vancouver Sun publishes 10-part series on “Water: Life blood of BC” – part 9 is about the Cowichan River on the central east coast of Vancouver Island

Note to Reader:

Climate change threatens to make this summer’s drought look minor. In September 2015, the Vancouver Sun newspaper is publishing a 10-part series of articles about “Water: Life blood of BC”. The series theme is how BC uses water and what the future has in store for our waterways. Published on September 21, the ninth installment explains why the Cowichan River is in trouble because 2015 is the sixth dry summer to afflict the river since 2003.

“Vancouver Island-relief CowichanRiver” by Skookum1 at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Sreejithk2000 using CommonsHelper.. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vancouver_Island-relief_CowichanRiver.png#/media/File:Vancouver_Island-relief_CowichanRiver.png

Plenty of Demand Puts Stress on Critical Island Waterway

In the ninth installment, Vancouver Sun columnist Stephen Hume quotes Rodger Hunter, Chair of the Cowichan Watershed Board:

“Dry summers in 2006, 2009, 2010, 2012 and now 2015 suggest not only the emergence of a new ‘normal’ climate, he says, they also point to either a lack of capacity or an unwillingness on the part of senior government to fulfil their stewardship mandate to ensure proper drought response planning, protect riparian zones and water sources and safeguard basic environmental flows to protect ecological systems.”

The Cowichan River is a moderately sized river. It originates in Cowichan Lake, flowing east towards its end at Cowichan Bay. Its drainage basin is 795 square kilometres.

To Learn More:

To read the ninth installment in the 10-part series, click on Cowichan River is the lifeblood of this part of Vancouver Island, but it has been diminished by six dry summers in 12 years