Vancouver Sun publishes 10-part series on “Water: Life blood of BC” – part 10 is about the water resources of the Okanagan Valley

Note to Reader:

Climate change threatens to make this summer’s drought look minor. In September 2015, the Vancouver Sun newspaper is publishing a 10-part series of articles about “Water: Life blood of BC”. The series theme is how BC uses water and what the future has in store for our waterways. Published on September 22, the tenth and final installment explain why Okanagan Lake is huge but not infinite.

Photograph of the terrain and development in the Okanagan, taken by w:User:Roleypolinde. Originally on the English wikipedia.

Okanagan Valley has Started to Respond to Drought Conditions,

In the tenth and final installment, writer Larry Pynn quotes Anna Warwick Sears, executive director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board as follows:

“The Okanagan has to be one of the most highly managed water systems in Canada. Almost every tiny bit of water running on the land has some kind of control structure on it. It’s a total mishmash. Everyone has their own concern and is looking at it from their own perspective. And there’s no information coming from the provincial government to bring it all together. This is an unprecedented situation and no one knows quite how to respond.”

A 2010 study of the entire Okanagan basin found a residential per capita rate of 675 litres, which compared with a Canadian average of 329 litres and B.C. average of 490 litres. Metro Vancouver weighs in at 470 litres per person daily.

To Learn More:

To read the final installment in the 10-part series, click on The Okanagan Valley has started to respond to drought conditions, but is hampered by a ‘mishmash’ of almost 100 water providers with no overall co-ordination