Editor:
At the end of April, after a cold wet winter, water restrictions on the Sunshine Coast again went into force. Last year, “summer” water restrictions lasted through to February.
We have had water restrictions on the Coast since the 1980s. Since then the population of the Sechelt peninsula has tripled, with very little increase in water supply. Our water restrictions are more severe than those in the semi desert Okanagan.
We’ve all just received our water tax bills. Mine has gone up 24 per cent in one year, though my water use has not increased. Why? According to Leonard Lee, the SCRD board chair, “Our water systems have not received the consistent investment they have required for decades.” Yet, there is still no plan to significantly increase water supply, though there is more than adequate accessible freshwater in the hills behind us. A water shortage in the midst of plenty. People dig wells because the regional water supply is chronically inadequate. We are like the people of poor developing countries who buy generators because the electrical supply is unreliable.
No one on the Coast takes responsibility for the failure of planning and action – not the planners, not the regional district and not our MLA.
Forty years lack of meaningful action on the water supply is scandalous.
I challenge our regional planners and our MLA – stop making excuses. Fix the water problem now, or do the honourable thing. Resign.
Stan Lubin
Sechelt
