LIVING WATER SMART IN BRITISH COLUMBIA: The voices of experience remind us that progress is measured in terms of decades.
Note to Reader:
Waterbucket eNews celebrates the leadership of individuals and organizations who are guided by the Living Water Smart vision. The edition published on welcomed readers back for another season of Waterbucket eNews! Between September 2022 and June 2023, we published 32 feature stories over a 9-month period.
Context and history do matter
“The Partnership for Water Sustainability in its present form was birthed in 2003. We seized the moment and moved into a vacuum. Timing is everything. At the beginning of 2003, the members of an intergovernmental committee comprised of three levels of government were in place. By April 2003, we were organized and we were primed for action.”
“In September 2003, mere weeks after the Kelowna fires resulted in evacuation of some 27,000 residents, Lynn Kriwoken of the Ministry of Environment asked me to spearhead development and implementation of the Water Sustainability Action Plan for British Columbia, released in February 2004. Then came BC’s first Drought Response Plan in June 2004.”
To learn more, click on Provincial Drought Forum
“At our first inter-regional focus group session, held in Kelowna in November 2003, the vision and game plan for the waterbucket.ca website had crystalized. The Partnership embraced the model for storytelling that Joanne deVries pioneered with her FreshOutlook magazine in the 1990s.”
“The rest is history, as they say. We embarked on a journey with a commitment to document our history on waterbucket.ca even as we created it through collaboration and partnerships. And why is this context important for our readers to know?”
Members of the team in April 2005 when the Minister of Environment announced that waterbucket.ca was now LIVE. From left to right: Ron Smith, Lynn Kriwoken, Joanne deVries, Ray Fung and Mike Tanner.
“Well….because people learn from stories! Through storytelling, we pass on an understanding of THE WHY and THE WHAT. Two decades later, you are reading Waterbucket eNews !”
“For more than two decades, the Partnership has been developing tools and resources and mentoring talent, while all the time growing the Living Water Smart Network. The Partnership is all about the intergenerational mission and passing the baton to those who are receptive to embracing it,” concluded Kim Stephens.
TO LEARN MORE:
To read the complete story, download a copy of Living Water Smart in British Columbia: In 2023, history repeated itself in the Kelowna region.
DOWNLOAD: https://waterbucket.ca/cfa/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2023/09/PWSBC_Living-Water-Smart_Waterbucket-eNews-new-season_2023.pdf