Convening for Action in British Columbia

Dr. Jeff Curtis posed this question to the audience to provide context for the panel discussion: “How long until we run out of water in the Okanagan during a drought year?” He then proceeded to illustrate the inevitability of a collision course. His key message was that the time horizon is relatively short.

Too often, communities respond to 21st century water problems with 20th century solutions— bigger pipes and bigger pumps leading to bigger tax bills” says Michael M’Gonigle, Eco- Research Chair of Law and Policy at the University of Victoria. “Communities are missing out the full potential of water conservation and efficiency.”

Developed by a BC-based Inter-Governmental Partnership as an extension of Stormwater Planning: A Guidebook for British Columbia, the Water Balance Model for Canada enables users to compare scenarios for rainwater runoff volume reduction in order to achieve a light 'hydrologic footprint'. The tool is developed by a consortium of local, regional, provincial and federal agencies.

The Irrigation Industry Association of British Columbia (IIABC) has developed this Landscape Irrigation Scheduling Calculator to assist irrigators in developing a proper irrigation schedule taking into account the location, landscape, soil and irrigation system operation parameters. The calculator will provide the irrigator with the number of days to water, the irrigation run time for each day and the maximum run time per cycle.

The Convening for Action initiative is informing change in British Columbia through implementation of an outreach and continuing education program. “This program has a number of elements. While the main focus is on events organized under the Convening for Action umbrella, the program also includes making presentations at events organized by others,” stated Kim Stephens.

Rainwater harvesting workshops held in Vancouver and Victoria in mid-2005 were part of a national series. Peter Coombes (from Australia) was the featured speaker at the Vancouver event.

The program for the 2005 Rainwater Harvesting Workshop in Victoria was built around Klaus Koenig, German architect and consulting engineer. Klaus has been extensively involved with the subject of rainwater utilization for 20 years. The author of several books in German on the subject, his first English book on rainwater recycling, 'The Rainwater Technology Handbook, Rain Harvesting in Building', was published in 2001.

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.