Residents asked to cut down on water use by province, drought worsens

British Columbia residents have something else to be worried about this summer: water shortages.

Bowinn Ma, minister of emergency management and climate readiness, told a news conference Monday, July 10, many areas of the province are affected by drought and she is urging residents across B.C. to conserve water.

“Consider taking shorter showers, only do full loads of dishes and laundry, water your lawn sparingly. We are in this together. Do your part, look out for one another,” Ma said.

The minister said drought levels have worsened over the past year due to less rain and other precipitation, and the majority of water basins (17 of 34) are now at level four drought.

“If conservation measures do not achieve sufficient results and drought conditions worsen, temporary protection orders under the Water Sustainability Act may be issued to water licensees to support drinking water for communities and avoid significant or irreversible harm to aquatic ecosystems,” Ma stated.

Ma said many communities are implementing water restrictions and more will be needed.

“The drought situation is serious. We have not experienced this level of widespread drought across the province this early in the year in recent memory.”

Ma also updated the wildfire situation, with 2,300 lightning strikes recorded over the weekend, starting 115 new fires.

“We are anticipating continued extreme fire behaviour, and all of us need to do our part to prevent the situation from becoming any worse, no matter where we are in the province,” the minister emphasized.

There are 156 people under evacuation orders due to wildfires, and the province declared a state of emergency for the Stikine region today.

Ma said there is no need for a provincial state of emergency at this point, but noted B.C. is seeing more climate events like major fires and droughts.

“This is an extremely challenging time for people and communities. It is immensely stressful living day to day with smoke or being near a fire, or being on an evacuation order or alert,” Ma remarked.

The province and Wildfire Service have now implemented bans on category one campfires in all areas of province other than Haida Gwaii.

“I urge everyone to do their part. Human caused wildfires are completely preventable and divert critical resources away from lightning-caused fires,” Ma said.

As of 12:30 p.m., July 10, there were 311 active wildfires in B.C. with 27 in the Kamloops Fire Centre.

Cliff Chapman, operations director for the BC Wildfire Service, said most fire regions already have campfire bans in effect, but today’s action will restrict the activity across the province, other than Haidi Gwaii.

“We have not had a large concern with human caused campfires creating wildfires, but we do not have the capacity right now to respond to fires that we can prevent, and those are the human-caused fires,” Chapman said, alluding to the many lightning-caused fires that are happening, with more expected.

All three categories of open fires are now banned in B.C. until further notice.