Water Use Reporting Centre: Okanagan Pilot Brings Water Management into the 21st Century
Okanagan Basin Water Board Proposes New BC Water Commission
“British Columbia’s new Water Sustainability Act introduces a range of new water management service needs including groundwater license management, watershed planning, source water protection, and enforcement. A new water-use reporting commission would help government support the delivery of these services,” observes 
Dr. Anna Warwick Sears, Executive Director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB).
The OBWB has therefore proposed a new Water Use Commission for British Columbia. This would create the necessary linkage between good water-use data and water management, a significant improvement to the current process of managing BC’s most precious resource – water.
Water Use Reporting Centre
According to OBWB Chair Doug Findlater, the Province currently does not have the management framework to meet the new needs of the Water Sustainability Act. But he says that the proposed Water Commission, using the water use reporting software developed in the Okanagan, would provide that.
“Building on previous senior and local government investments to develop the Water Use Reporting Centre in the Okanagan, we are in a unique situation to develop a new model that supports sustainable water management, economic development and provides a world-class system for British Columbia,” says Doug Findlater.
Manage Water at an Appropriate Scale
“The BC Water Use Reporting tool allows utilities and others involved in water management to use the data for planning and managing the resource at an appropriate scale,” explains Nelson Jatel, OBWB Water Stewardship Director.
“With a new commission operating the web-based Water Use Reporting Centre province-wide, current data on water use would always be up-to-date and available for making important decisions about shared water. This approach would improve water services to BC residents and communities at very little additional cost.”
To Learn More:
To download a brochure produced by the OBWB, click on BC Water Use Reporting Centre.
To access additional information on the OBWB website, click on Improving Water Management in BC.
To read a complementary story posted on the Water-Centric Planning community-of-interest, click on Okanagan Basin Water Board Proposes New B.C. Water Commission.
