Writing's in the well: Why B.C. needs a new Water Act, now

As another long, dry summer in B.C. comes to an end and the rainy season settles in, it might be easy to forget about the drought the province experienced this summer.

But as B.C.’s forests turn green and lush again, and this summer’s bone-dry conditions fade into the recesses of memory, one thing remains clear: B.C.’s archaic Water Act—established more than a century ago—is simply incapable of ensuring everyone has fair and predictable access to water.

With Canada’s freshwater levels depleting rapidly, now, more than ever, is the time for the B.C. government to act—swiftly and decisively—on its years-old promise of delivering modern water legislation.

A Statistics Canada study released Monday (September 13) said water yield in southern Canada, home to 98 percent of the country’s population, has fallen by an average of 3.5 cubic kilometres a year during the last 30 years, an 8.5 percent decline over the study period.

That’s an annual loss of 1.4 million Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of fresh water.

Clearly, the issue of water shortages isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so B.C. needs to take the plunge and dive into a comprehensive update of its Water Act.

When B.C. began experiencing droughtlike conditions this summer, the government had a less than ideal list of available options to deal with the problem.

Instead of employing a gradual response to the drought—steps like requiring water-saving practices or technology, eliminating non-essential water use as a first step, mandating sharing agreements between users and protecting environmental needs for water—the Ministry of Environment could only warn that the situation was dire and threaten to invoke the most drastic of responses: cutting off water if the crisis deepened.

Clearly, the system is flawed. Not only does the current Water Act handcuff the B.C. government’s ability to respond during dry times, but it also offers little ability for the government to undertake long-term planning in areas that consistently encounter water shortages. The current “water-management planning” process is so cumbersome that no plan has ever been approved and adopted.

The government has already admitted the challenges we face. A few years ago, in an unusual but commendable move, B.C. committed to much-needed Water Act reform and set specific deadlines for said reform. That was then, but now B.C. is running out of time to fulfill its promises.

Given what we experienced this summer and predictions for the future, the government needs to move now to improve water governance. The key priorities are: legal protections for environmental flows; monitoring and regulating groundwater use; ensuring mechanisms for conflict-resolution including updates to the now out-of-date priority allocation system; and enabling those affected to have a meaningful say in watershed-based decision-making.

Better water protections will benefit businesses and communities as well as the environment. Businesses and communities need to know that they have a secure supply of water. One only needs to think of what happened in Tofino in 2006, when the resort town ran out of water on its busiest weekend of the year to understand water’s crucial role in our communities.

We desperately need a fair, predictable water allocation system that makes sure that we use water wisely and are able to cope in times of drought.

Otherwise, we might wake up one day to find that our taps have finally run dry.

Randy Christensen, staff lawyer, Ecojustice