Residents of Williams Lake have been using far less water over the past few years.
Jenny Howell Water Wise Instructor and Executive Director of the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society said since 2006 they’ve seen a steady decline in usage in the City.
She noted that the Society has been recording water data since they started the water-wise program 16 years ago and went over their recent findings.
“An average of the three years, 2018, 2019, 20 and 21, comparing that to the three years before Water Wise began in 2006, we’re now using 31.6% less water than we were before 2006.”
Howell said one of the factors to the reduction is due to the water education programs the Conservation Society offers to students who then teach what they’ve learned to their parents.
She added before COVID they were reaching about two thousand kids per year.
Howell said through the Society’s collective efforts they’ve helped stabilize the City’s water source which is an aquifer under the whole valley and explained the importance of keeping it stable.
“When an aquifer does drop you can actually lose its potential to hold water. As the water is drained from it the ceiling or the roof of the aquifer releases and collapses down so there isn’t room even if water was to suddenly magically increase again there’s nowhere for it to go. So there’s a chance of actually losing an aquifer completely.”
Howell said the reduction in water use is good news, the aquifer is stable and looks like it will be in the future as long as the City continues to be water-wise.
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