Chris and I are currently working a project for our public policy class. We are researching water conservation through a public policy lens. We're in a group of four and each of us are undertaking research on how various stakeholders are involved with water conservation. Stakeholders like the industrial/commercial sector, agricultural sector, government, and most importantly residential and households. We are coming across some pretty fascinating stuff. A lot of research has been done on water quality issues but necessarily on water quantity. From a Canadian context, water quantity is not a pressing issue. Remember we do have 20% of the world's water and our municipalities allocate it pretty evenly.
Now, Canada does have an abundant amount of water, but a lot of the precipitation that falls from our sky runs off to the north. 60% of this water supply flows north and is not readily available or easily accessed where it is needed. 84% of Canada's population lives within a 300-kilometer band along the southern border. What we have discovered through our research thus far, is that water pricing in municipalities across Canada to encourage water conservation, is not very common. Typically, water pricing or metering can encourage households to conserve water. Municipalities that have introduced water pricing, have seen a reduction in residential water usage.
Yes I know that water pricing is highly controversial. We are not living in the South West United States where water is scarce. But in general, pricing and/or metering provides a financial incentive to householders to use less water. Alternatives to pricing do exist, and can be pursued at full swing provided that there is a willingness from the municipality and households. Do not forget, municipalities or urban areas have thousands if not millions of residents who use anywhere from 300L to 500L of water everyday. Education and technological improvements in water infrastructure are the best alternatives to water pricing. I am not a huge advocate of water pricing although I think it works well. Technology has been promoted as a means to conserve water through the use of ultra-low-flow toilets, restricted shower heads, and water efficient washing machines. Low flow shower heads are great too.
In sum, households in Canada use a fair bit of water. According to the OECD, Canada ranks 29th among the 30 OECD nations in terms of per capita water consumption. The US is the only country that's worse than us. Outdoor water usage is the most egregious. Things like car washing, lawn watering excessively, pool filling and washing our driveways. Again technology exists to help us with this, things like efficient lawn water devices and xeriscaping. Xeriscaping simply refers to landscaping that does not require a lot of irrigation where you're using more indigenous and drought-tolerant plants in your garden. The government can certainly come to play and provide incentives and rebates to households who show interest in making improvements to their water infrastructure. Even tax credits where the resident receives a direct reduction in tax liability for installing technology can eventually cut water usage in half.
Key message: Pricing water in Canadian municipalities has not yet been fully implemented at a large scale. Some municipalities have introduced it and water consumption has dropped significantly. Water pricing is one way to go, but educational campaigns that inform residences about how much water they are using can be equally as effective. Technology is also good and can make a big difference. What should we do?
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