RBC STUDY: Paved Surfaces, Overloaded Infrastructure and Severe Weather Conditions All Create Challenges for Managing Excess Rainwater in Canada
Survey Finding: Canadians concerned but may not prepared for water damage from storms
Launched in 2007, the RBC Blue Water Project is an historic, wide-ranging, 10-year global commitment to help protect the world’s most precious natural resource: fresh water. In 2008, RBC started polling Canadians about their attitudes to water. Last month, RBC released their 2013 Canadian Water Attitudes Study. This quantitative survey of 2,000 Canadians is the most comprehensive of its kind in the world.
“Canadians continue to have a love affair with paved driveways, and there’s a serious trickle-down effect. With impermeable sidewalks, roadways and parking lots added to the mix, we’ve actually created the ideal condition for excess water to overwhelm our already strained municipal storm water systems,” stated Bob Sandford, chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative of the United Nations Water for Life Decade, in a statement released by RBC.
“Municipalities, property developers and homeowners must work together to better manage storm water,” says Sandford.
This is not just a municipal planning issue. Sandford says that individual Canadians could be doing their part to manage excess water from rain around their homes now. Yet, according to the study, few Canadians have taken preventive measures such as landscaping with grading (23 per cent) or replacing paved surfaces with water-permeable materials (seven per cent).
To Learn More:
To read the complete story about the survey findings, click on 2013 RBC Canadian Water Attitudes Study: Urban-dwellers ill-prepared for impact of Mother Nature on water
In 2013-2014, the RBC Blue Water Project is funding projects that lead to improved control and management of urban rainwater runoff, protection and restoration of urban waterways, and improved urban water quality.
