The program for the 2005 Rainwater Harvesting Workshop in Vancouver was built around Dr. Peter Coombes of the University of Newcastle in Australia. Dr. Coombes is an engineer and a microbiologist who has achieved international recognition as a result of challenging conventional wisdom and championing new approaches for Urban Water Cycle Management in Australia.
“The workshop demonstrated how local practioners are meeting the challenge of moving from planning to action. By bringing people together to share their experiences, effective implementation of the design with nature can be addressed through practical changes,” stated Kim Stephens.
“In British Columbia, school children learn about the hydrologic cycle in Grade Five. By high school they have forgotten about it. There is a parallel pattern in engineering education. The concept is re-taught in first year hydrology and then forgotten after graduation. These observations have provided an impetus for the BC Water Sustainability Committee to champion OUT = IN as the way to re-focus water supply planners,” stated Kim Stephens.
“The relationship between the Water Sustainability Action Plan and the Water Save Tool Kit is cascading—the Action Plan will provide a strategic framework, while the Tool Kit will offer a range of on-the-ground measures and approaches that will enable individuals and communities to achieve water conservation and water-use efficiency objectives,” explained Lynn Kriwoken.
The Province and Water Sustainability Committee co-organized a focus group workshop that was held in the Okanagan. “The approach in developing the Water Sustainability Action Plan is grounded. Our vision is that the products resulting from the Action Plan will represent a continuum…with policy at one end, and pragmatic applications / tools at the other end,” explained Kim Stephens.
