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“The reason I joined the Partnership for Water Sustainability in the early days of ‘incorporation’ was to be an advocate for educating local communities, land decision makers and the stewardship communities about the need to move from awareness to action. We need to both reduce the demand for water and protect stream health from the adverse consequences of land development practices,” recalls Peter Law. “It was  through my work as a Provincial Fish Biologist that I became aware first-hand of the issue of water sustainability and watershed health.”

“Change involves a paradigm shift from an old way of thinking-and-doing to a new way, typically to replace unacceptable outcomes with acceptable ones,” stated Erik Karlsen.
“When this occurs some might ask why the old way wasn’t designed to anticipate and prepare for its impacts from the outset? And, more to the point, how do we design and implement new paradigms to achieve more sustainable and resilient outcomes; those which consider and address all interests and are capable of dealing with uncertainties inherent in complex adaptive systems.”

In his 1969 book, Design With Nature, Ian McHarg pioneered the concept of environmental planning. “So, I commend Design with Nature to your sympathetic consideration. The title contains a gradient of meaning. It can be interpreted as simply descriptive of a planning method, deferential to places and peoples, it can invoke the Grand Design, it can emphasize the conjunction with and, finally it can be read as an imperative. DESIGN WITH NATURE!,” wrote Ian McHarg. He insisted we look at the many aspects of the entire system we are designing. Instead of fighting against natural forces, design in harmony with them.

“Over the last 10 years, the WSC/Partnership has accomplished much. Through a strategic partnership with the Ministry of Environment, we developed the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia, which provided the framework for our work,” states Raymond Fung. “As a result, the Waterbucket.ca website portal was initiated.  The Water Balance Model was developed.  The Water$ave Toolkit was completed.  The Green Infrastructure Partnership was launched.  And on Vancouver Island in particular, the Convening for Action initiative has inspired a whole grassroots collective.”

“The drought, forest fires and floods that British Columbia experienced in 2003 have created a teachable moment for change in the way we view water in this province,” stated Ray Fung. “Capitalizing on this opportunity, the purpose of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia is to promote and facilitate sustainable approaches to water use and water resource management.” Sustainable communities are all about choices – choices that become reality very quickly, with lasting consequences.

“We define conservation quite broadly, to include more than just conserving energy or reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Our long-term goal is build connections between and within communities that result in advancing existing and creating new community-based commitments to actions that support the creation of a conservation culture, and ultimately, conservation itself,” stated Pia Nagpal. “The Conservation Community of Practice, supported by BC Hydro, was created in 2010 to bring together like minded conservation champions across BC to collaborate and share best practices.”

“The inter-regional program will link activities so that everyone can share experiences, benefit from lessons learned, and align efforts with the Living Water Smart and Green Communities initiatives. Collaboration, alignment and consistency in application will create opportunities for everyone to be more effective,” states Kim Stephens. “Each region has developed a provincially significant plan or approach to achieve water and watershed sustainability. All are striving to implement a consistent regional approach that protects and/or restores natural watershed function over time.”

“Numerous groups and organizations implicitly share a vision for integrated water management. Partnerships hold the key to building broad-based support for improving water management practices, and integrating water management with land use,” states Kim Stephens. “The Action Plan was conceived as a partnership umbrella for on-the-ground initiatives that promote water stewardship across the province, and that also inform Provincial policy through shared responsibility.”

“Settlement and ecology are equal values and they must be as much in balance as possible for wellbeing of human and natural systems. Settlement is human actitivity of any kind upon the land. It is habitation. Ecology is natural systems. It is water, climate, flora and fauna…and their relationships. While we are very good at measuring settlement, mainly in financial terms, we have not been that effective in quantifying the ecological impacts. This disconnect in measuring what matters has historically resulted in an unbalanced approach when making development and infrastructure decisions,” stated Tim Pringle.

“Convening for Action is a framework that brings stakeholders together, supported by the province, but led by local government. Collaboration and integration is a true bottom-up approach that identifies the issue and then seeks to address it through the alignment of all stakeholders, with emphasis on local government needs,” stated Glen Brown. “The philosophy behind the Water Sustainability Action Plan for BC is quite simple: bring local and regional stakeholders together where there is a desire and energy to make some form of change.”