Convening for Action in British Columbia

DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: BC snowpack levels are in the RED zone!” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in March 2025

March 25, 2025 - Posted in ...2025, PUBLICATIONS & DOWNLOADS

Note to Reader:

Published by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in British Columbia, Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. Stories are structured in three parts: One-Minute Takeaway (reproduced below), Editor’s Perspective, and the Story Behind the Story.

The edition published on March 25, 2025 drew reader attention to the low snowpack levels in British Columbia. Because the province relies on snowpack to sustain water supply during the dry summer months, a low snowpack is a harbinger of a drought. The story is a flashback to 2015 when Western North America clearly crossed an invisible threshold into a different hydrometeorological regime.

The story behind the story zooms out to provide a global perspective with an American focus. An article by Sara Hughes and Michael Wilson republished with permission of The Conversation. The American experience in 2024 shows that severe droughts can occur anywhere south of the Canada-USA border.

Risks, uncertainties and vulnerabilities when the climate is changing

“Climate change has aggravated an existing vulnerability related to seasonal supply of water in British Columbia. Over time, and as the population has grown, the safety factor has been shrinking. While it rains a lot, we do not have an abundance of supply when demand is greatest. This creates risks,” states Kim Stephens, Waterbucket eNews Editor and Partnership Executive Director.

“Only a generation ago, water supply managers in British Columbia could reasonably anticipate that three months of water storage would be sufficient to maintain supply during a dry summer. Today, however, a 6-month drought is a very real likelihood. That is a doubling!”

“Right when we need a reliable supply of water, we can expect deeper, more persistent drought punctuated by flooding. Events have proven Bob Sandford to be right with his assessment. of the changing climate. As of 2015, we clearly crossed an invisible threshold into a different hydrometeorological regime.”

Extremes are more extreme

Over the past decade, it has been one drought after another, dramatized by the extremes that impacted BC communities in 2021 and again in 2023. The mountainous nature of BC’s geography means that BC communities are typically storage-constrained, and what storage they do have is measured in weeks to months. This accentuates risks, uncertainties and vulnerabilities.