Post 65--Back to the Water

Hume’s Prophetic Warning

That precious stuff—water—has been discussed in posts 55, 57 and 58.  I want to continue with the topic today, for we here in BC are still in the serious water shortage of 2015 and we don’t see the end in sight.  Stephen Hume wrote us a strongly prophetic warning about the upcoming scarcity. He holds up California as the BC of tomorrow (“Water scarcity crisis looms in BC,” VS, April 6, 2015).  He warns that “Instead of tit-for-tat finger pointing, we now need an adult discussion of how to adapt to coming change with long-term planning that isn’t dictated by developers, investors and politicians wanting quick returns within short horizons.” 

Turning to stats, Hume tells us that over the past 50 years BC’s snow cover has “dwindled by 18% on average;” in  the Columbia region, 20%; Kootenay, 23%; mid-Fraser 47%!  50 years may seem like a long time to the juniors of this world, but to guys like me (77), that’s a short time, believe me, so short that we cannot afford to duplicate those stats during the coming 50.  Scientists are warning of “An impending water crisis in Canada’s western prairie provinces.” A crisis next door will become our crisis in BC, as farther-way California is already in terms of our food prices. 

Hume wants us to “to start having this conversation right now. Not in the rarefied atmosphere of academic conferences but as citizens prepared to bring the same passion to the discussion that we mustered over TransLink’s proposals. Believe me, water security is a much bigger issue than adjustments to the sales tax.” Amen, brother!

Mixed Public Reaction

In spite of his dire predictions and calls for serious actions on the part of citizen, government and UN, earlier in July, when our drought had already begun to make its mark, hundreds of Metro residents have been caught ignoring restrictions. Can you imagine such stupidity?  These are the people that have the power to vote, to determine our next governments!  No wonder we can’t vote satisfactory government into place. With such egocentrism and stupidity in place, how can you expect intelligent voting? 

I need to be fair. While there are those stupid ones, “across most of Metro Vancouver over the last decade” the use of water is down! (Gordon Hoekstra and Randy Shore, VS, July 17, 2015).  Despite increasing population, the total drop in Metro was 9% between 2004-2013. In per capita terms, this spells a reduction of 20% across the region. In the Township of Langley, water consumption dropped from 307 litres a day in 2004 to 282 in 2013—that’s 25 litres per capita per day. Try drinking that! You’ll see how much that is. So, credit where credit is due. Thanks to the more intelligent among us. Apparently we are still the majority!  Do I hear a shout of approval? Thank you. But, at the same time, 282 litres is still a lot that must be reduced.  How many bathtubs is that per capita?

Some Government Measures

What has caused this impressive reduction? Several measures taken by the authorities have helped. Hoekstra & Shore list education, sprinkling restrictions, better leak detection, improved water-efficient technology and charging for water, among others.  Then there are new requirements in construction. In Vancouver proper “the demolition of 1200 properties a year to make way for new homes…that require the lowest flow toilets and shower heads,” while “new single-family homes and duplexes” require the installation of meters. 

From Tub to Tank

In one of the earlier posts I confessed to a private water saving measure I have never before confessed publicly to others, only to find we are not the only ones to…. Well, remember that ditty? Today, in view of the extreme shortage we are facing, we are following advice we read elsewhere—from tub to tank. Our bathtub and toilet are right next to each other. So, we leave the water in the tub and whenever a flush is unavoidable, I get down on my knees and scoop water from the tub into the tank fast, so that the tank fills up from the tub and not from the “natural” mechanism inside of the tank. My guess is that at the end 75% of the water in the tank is from the tub. That’s a considerable saving.  Gross, you might think?  Extreme, you might snort? Well, yes, probably, but we are in an extreme situation and soon might be in one that’s gross if there’s no water to flush at all.

That’s it for today, but in the near future I do hope to return once or twice more to this most vital of topics—more vital than a half percent increase in sales tax and one that may well dwarf all TransLink issues. If there’s no water, there’s no need for the former.  Just to make you curious, the next post will be among the most politically incorrect I have ever plagiarized. 

Post 57--"Precious Resource" Revisited

The California drought gets plenty of media attention, not only in CA itself but also in other jurisdictions, certainly in BC. Our BC interest in the subject is due to the sharp increase in the price of  CA-grown fruit and vegetables that we consume in our province. We are confronted by the CA situation every day as we look for bargains in the local vegetable market just around the corner from us. It’s not a pretty scene for us seniors who are on fixed incomes nor, I’m sure, for working parents with growing children.

But as we speak, we have our own drought in BC to cope with as well. We depend for our water on two sources, snow on the mountains and plenty of rain forest precipitation. This year, we are short on both. Snow was so sparse that ski resorts had to occasionally shut down, a most unusual situation for us here.  And while we could somehow afford to truck in snow from more than a 150 kilometres away for the winter Olympics back in 2010…. Yes, truck in snow!  Ever heard of that?  Usually if there’s snow trucking to be done, it’s to get rid of it. Not in 2010. We had to truck it in! Imagine! And all that expense just so a few—probably less than 200?—die-hard winter sports activists can have their moment of fame after spending most of their lives on a few snow-oriented acrobatic exercises. Was that worth all that expense? That’s for another post someday.

Sorry, got so carried away about that snow trucking—pun intended—that I  didn’t even complete that sentence. Left you in the snow, so to speak. While we managed to pay for trucking snow for the Olympics, we couldn’t this past winter. What does that tell you? Could we draw the conclusion that the Olympics and its economy are more important than the daily lives of ordinary citizens under routine circumstances?  At any rate, the point is we got a lot less snow last winter with the result that there is less snow to melt and fill up our reservoirs.  For winter sport enthusiasts as well as for the tourist industry, it was kind of a disaster, while the rest of us enjoyed a very mild winter, milder even than we are accustomed to in the south-west of the province.  Alas, now we are paying for it, literally.  We are short of the precious stuff. 

Added to that fiasco—not sure “added” is the right word here—is the greatly reduced rain fall in spring and summer. We’ve just had gorgeous weather and lots of sunshine, but, again, no rain, no water. The only thing we have more of is drought. What we also have more of this summer is fires, forest fires over the top, throughout much of Western Canada. We always have forest fires in the summer, but this year all budgets have been far overspent and an unusual number of communities evacuated.

One of the worst features of the current fire scene is that, according to reports, many of them are caused by humans. Some by careless smokers who stupidly—and I use that word advisedly, for my daughter has forbidden her children to use the word—throw their butts (note the double “t’s”!) out of their car windows. Should these people be hanged, as a display along the Princeton Highway some decades ago used to “advocate”?

Others are lit intentionally! Not just one or two, but a large number of them! Can you imagine anything more fiendish than that? I am reminded of our RV trip to the far Canadian north, when we had a long and amicable chat with a couple of Aboriginals. They told us that their summer employment mostly consisted of fighting forest fires. What about summers with only a few fires? we asked. No problem. They would just light them!  Not having walked in their moccasins, I would not apply the term “fiendish” to them. I have no idea whether any of our 2015 fires are from Aboriginal arson or not. Of course, political correctness being alive and well in the country’s media, they would not likely report such if it were. 

All of the above was to lead me into the subject of water preservation. Stream of consciousness led me to and around the subject but not into it. With my apologies. Call it a human interest post, if you like. But I really should get into the preservation thing before all our water gets used up! So, that will be next. Or should I say “That should be next?  See you there, but don’t wait for my instructions re. water preservation. I’m sure you can think of some ways yourself. Do it! Now! We’re in a precarious situation.  Think of ten small ways in which you, yes, you, can reduce your use of water and then do it.