Editor:
At first It was mildly amusing – the village in the rainforest with no water. Gentle mocking from the big city newspapers earned a smile. We’re now well past that. Our regional district government has allowed our water infrastructure to deteriorate so badly that it’s no longer laughable. Stage 4 emergency watering restrictions have become the norm, we lose our gardens most summers, just as they come into full growth, and we’re urged to live a third-world lifestyle of restricted sanitation. The current state of affairs has diminished our quality of life and turned us into a community of cynics. Some are leaving the Coast, seeking communities under competent governance.
The latest and perhaps most significant issue is contained in a letter from the Sechelt Fire Protection District, delivered to Sechelt council on April 21. In that letter, the chair of the board of trustees for the district advised Sechelt council of the potential fire protection and insurance consequences of another Stage 4 restriction like last year. The letter says that, should water reserves dwindle to the point experienced last year, the Sechelt Fire Department may no longer be capable of providing the current level of fire protection. Under those conditions they would be obliged to notify the Fire Underwriters Survey of the diminished fire protection that could be provided. It’s not hard to imagine what that would do to our housing insurance rates, not to mention the increased risk to our homes.
People on the Coast are fed up – they may very well not honour the spirit or the law when it comes to watering restrictions this summer. Some suggest that we need to generate a real water crisis to ignite real action. The level of disappointment in the SCRD Board of Directors is palpable.
Do something!
Keith Maxwell
West Sechelt
