BACKGROUNDER SERIES ON SUSTAINABLE WATERSHED SYSTEMS: Governments of Canada and British Columbia fund Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Education Initiative (released in April 2017)
Moving Towards
“Sustainable Watershed Systems, through Asset Management”
Collaborating under the umbrella of the Georgia Basin Inter-Regional Education Initiative (IREI), the Cowichan Valley Regional District is one of five regional districts sharing and learning from each other about how to implement “Sustainable Watershed Systems, through Asset Management”.
The Georgia Basin region encompasses the east coast of Vancouver Island and Lower Mainland (Metro Vancouver). These lands drain into the Salish Sea, which includes Puget Sound in Washington State
The other IREI partners are Capital Region, Nanaimo Region, Comox Valley and Metro Vancouver. Together, the five represent 75% of British Columbia’s population. The not-for-profit Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC is the IREI secretariat.
Moving from Awareness to Understanding to Implementation
On March 17th 2017, the governments of Canada and British Columbia announced program funding for Sustainable Watershed Systems. The Cowichan Valley Regional District (CVRD) acted on behalf of the partners to receive the capacity-building grant from the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund (CWWF).
The Partnership has undertaken to help build local government capacity to implement Sustainable Watershed Systems, through Asset Management. Tools and programs are accessible, replicable and align fully with the strategy to implement Asset Management for Sustainable Service Delivery: A Framework for BC.