Thank you for helping us meet our fundraising goal!
More than $117 million in infrastructure funding will be unleashed to address water woes on B.C.’s Sunshine Coast, the federal government announced on Thursday.
The shíshálh Nation will head up the project along with the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) to upgrade the region’s water treatment plant and construct two large storage reservoirs in the Chapman Creek watershed.
Drinking water in the region, which is on B.C.’s southern coast and includes the municipalities of Sechelt and Gibsons, is under threat from a constant string of summer droughts.
Ten of the last 14 summers have been below the summer precipitation average predicted for 2050 with climate change.
Last summer was the first time in nearly a decade stringent water measures weren’t enacted. The regional district has had to repeatedly implement Stage 4 water conservation regulations that ban all outdoor residential water use, including watering food gardens, trees or plants, along with hefty fines for any infractions.
Patrick Weiler, Liberal MP for the West Vancouver - Sunshine Coast - Sea to Sky riding, said the water treatment and storage project is transformative and would meet the dire need to protect water security in the region as recurrent droughts continue with climate change.
“This project is incredibly urgent,” Weiler told Canada’s National Observer, noting the SCRD, the shíshálh Nation and Sechelt were all forced to declare a state of local emergency due to drought in 2022.
“The hospital was on the brink of running out of access to water, which would have been a calamity, and businesses were forced to shut down,” Weiler said.
Businesses, commercial water-users and facilities drawing large amounts of water for “non-essential” purposes, such as breweries, cleaning services, water bottlers, and the municipal pool had the taps turned off to preserve drinking water.
“There’s an annual risk that we might be in that situation again, or even if it doesn't get to that level, there is a constant sense of anxiety that residents on the Sunshine Coast are living with that has to be addressed.”
The Chapman Lake water system in Sechelt supplies water to approximately 90 per cent of the southern Sunshine Coast's residents. But during the increasingly hot, dry summers the reservoir's water levels drop significantly.
The new water project, which doesn’t have a firm completion date, will provide water security to residents in the region for generations, Weiler said.
With climate change, less rain is falling in the summer but is intensifying in the winter months, so the new reservoirs will collect water from the Chapman River when it is abundant and store it for use during the seasonal droughts.
Climate change impacts everyone’s lives and requires adaptation to ensure a brighter collective future, said shíshálh Nation Ihe hiwus (Chief) Lenora Joe in a statement.
“We will work with climate change, collecting rain during winter storms and using it in the summer – we will change with the times,” she said.
“Our ancestors taught us to use resources in sustainable and caring ways and we will do just that.”
The reservoirs will be created by expanding existing excavation areas from the long-running Heidelberg Materials sand and gravel mine in Sechelt, Weiler said.
“It’s using a site that has already been disturbed,” he said.
“This is actually closing the loop in some ways, by not having an impact on the environment to create a reservoir.”
Regardless, funding for the project is tied to meeting Indigenous consultation and environmental assessment requirements.
Devising a solution to the water crisis is the result of years of hard work and cooperation between all levels of government, including shíshálh Nation, the regional district and municipalities, along with the provincial and federal government, Weiler said.
The collaborative project ensures climate resilience, reconciliation and long-term sustainability, the project’s partners noted in a press release.
The project models how to strengthen the resilience of communities that share challenges as a result of climate change, said Alton Toth, regional district chair.
“Our region is able to finally look to the long-term. Not just to the next year or the next political term, but for generations, knowing that we will have greater water security than ever before,” Toth said.
“This project is not the end of a process, but rather the first milestone in a partnership that will outlast us all.”
Rochelle Baker / Canada’s National Observer
Comments