Dear Editor:
Since I last wrote a letter to the Burnaby Now about the City of Burnaby needing to put water supply priorities before increasing city density, I have seen no initiative that could be labelled innovative, creative or otherwise to address this problem.
City council's only idea is to restrict lawn watering earlier this year. This is their best idea? This is just plain lazy. Surely, the mayor and council can see that this is only a Band-Aid solution at best, and a very poor one at the least. The problem is greater than this.
The entire Lower Mainland needs an increased supply of water as population density increases. Making longtime citizens do with less to enable increased density only erodes our current quality of life. Water abusers will turn their sprinklers on on at the appointed days and times and leave them on for the full duration.
Water meters and fees are punitive, and large-scale industrial water users get a nearly free ride on the water they draw for bottled water, soft drink manufacture and brewing uses. Educated conservation measures that people can understand make more sense. I don't see anywhere in the lawn watering restrictions a suggested duration of watering time, merely a several-hour-long window of time when watering is allowed on set even or odd days.
I have installed an irrigation system that limits my lawn watering duration to 15 minutes on the set days. For this system, I have to pay to have it checked yearly and also pay a fee to the city. Hardly fair when I could just turn the hose on and let it run for five hours, don't you think?
The mayor and council need to get their thinking caps on, and soon.
Darcy Olson, Burnaby
