Water Use & Conservation

Drop by Drop: Urban Water Conservation Practices in Western Canada is a report created by the Canada West Foundation to support its goal of encouraging water conservation.

Probe Research Inc. has conducted its second national analysis of Canadians’ attitudes and behaviors on a wide range of drinking water issues. Entitled A Clear Perspective of Canadians and their Drinking Water (2004), the study tracks several important areas from a previous research project conducted in 2002. In addition, several new areas were explored, such as Canadians’ current efforts to conserve water.

What can a small African insect teach us about water conservation? Quite a lot as it turns out. By observing how the Namibian desert beetle survives in the Namib Desert’s perpetually dry climate, a British architectural designer came up with a new way to harvest water. This demonstrated that big ideas could indeed come from the smallest of sources.

Canadians are among the highest water users in the world. Though Canada is perceived as a country with abundant water resources, about 60% of this water supply flows north and is not readily available or easily accessed where it is needed most—in a narrow 300-kilometre band along Canada’s southern border, home to over 84% of the population. Eleven percent of all surface water and groundwater withdrawn in Canada is used for municipal purposes.

Water is considered a renewable resource: “renewable” referring to that portion which circulates back and forth in the hydrologic cycle. However, pressures on the resource are growing. For example, between 1972 and 1996, Canada's rate of water withdrawals increased by almost 90 percent, from 24 billion m3/yr (cubic metres per year) to 45 billion m3/yr. But, our population increased by only 33.6 percent over the same period, illustrating the growth in our thirsty lifestyles. As the readily available supplies of fresh water are being used up, we begin to see that there are real limits to how much water we can count on.

We use water in many ways, and assign different values to those uses. Instream uses (e.g., for transportation and recreation) are valued highly, but it has proven difficult to give them a dollar value that has any real meaning. For example, just what would the average consumer be willing to pay to swim in a clean lake or for a chance to catch fish in a clean, unpolluted river?

Leaks can be costly. A leak of only one drop per second wastes about 10,000 litres of water per year. Most leaks are easy to find and to fix, at very little cost.

The 2004 Water Conservation Survey—conducted by the Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection and the Water Sustainability Committee of the B.C. Water and Waste Association—showed that only 29 percent of water utilities are using performance measures to determine if they are achieving their water conservation objectives. Of note, though, is that almost half of those not using performance measures are considering doing so in the future.

A recent survey showed there to be more than 3,300 water systems in B.C. Ninety-six systems operated by medium- to large-sized municipalities serve 90 percent of the population. The remainder are served by 97 regional districts, 57 small municipalities, 118 water user communities, 468 First Nations reserves, 211 improvement districts, and more than 2,100 park, campground, and commercial systems.

Many municipal councils recognize the importance and value of using independent committees to study issues with which they are dealing. Advisory committees are comprised of individuals from the public and/or private sectors, and are charged with the responsibility to closely examine issues given to them by the local governments. After careful deliberation, the committees present recommendations to the councils that can then be used to make decisions concerning the matter. This additional input can help councils be better informed about the different aspects of an issue.