I’m sitting here at the tail end of Covid. It finally found us - two years of following guidelines and rules, triple vaccinated, international travel last month and the spiky globule bided its time until it grabbed its one small, short chance at a social gathering and pounced. I feel almost grudging admiration and a sense of ‘OK, caught us fair and square.’
If you haven’t had it yet, our experience was that it isn’t terrible but also not something to dismiss as nothing. Feeling ill isn’t great (the bathroom feels a long way from the couch for a couple of days), but the biggest disruptor was continuing to test positive for 10 days. Ten days of life to reschedule and cancel; work commitments, appointments, family visits, music practices. Our booster immunity had waned at four months, but had previously protected us well from some close exposures in its first three months and I was glad to meet this with our B cells at least partially primed to produce some fast antibodies. Hearing stories of long COVID, I highly recommend avoiding it if you can.
Staying at home is a chance to catch up on the paperwork side of life. Recently I spent many satisfying hours sifting through the city’s water data, adding to spreadsheets and producing graphs until the picture emerged of how well residents are doing at being ‘water wise.’
Once again, it is good news and only getting better. The city of Williams Lake now uses 31.6 per cent less water than pre-water wise (2006), taking the average of the last four years and comparing to the three years pre-water wise. As much of the impact of large industrial users was removed as possible, to try and fairly evaluate residential behaviour. Water consumption has stayed lower even in dry summers and while our population climbs; currently population is at its highest back to 2002.
These numbers have real consequences. This reduced consumption reduces pressure on the city water source, an aquifer under the Williams Lake valley, ensuring a long term sustainable water supply. The aquifer was under intense stress in the early 2000s, the level was dropping in the area of the Scout Island pump stations and city staff became concerned about the long term viability of this water supply. One of the outcomes from the ensuing studies and committees was recommendations for community education to raise awareness of the vulnerability of the aquifer to over extraction.
At the time, the conservation society had just started a small water wise program, and with support from the city, this program was expanded and developed. The rest, as they say, is history.
So thanks to all those helping out with conservation efforts in Williams Lake. Your five minute showers and attention to turning off taps are noted and appreciated. It’s also great to see so many xeriscape gardens springing up; using less water while beautifying neighbourhoods. Look for our xeriscape plant guides at local garden centres this spring- xeriscape does not just mean cacti.
Happy spring and please continue to be water wise!
Jenny Howell is the water wise instructor and the executive director of the Cariboo Chilcotin Conservation Society
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