"Vancouver has the vision to be the greenest city in the world by 2020. To get there, we’ve defined 10 long-term goals, each associated with a 2020-target. After talking citizens and stakeholders, we’ve created a draft action plan to meet our proposed targets." That is how begin each short video presenting these 10 targets which are :

1.Green economy

2.Climate leadership

3.Green buildings

4.Green transportation

5.Zero waste

6.Access to nature

7.Lighter footprint

8.Clean water

9.Clean air

10.Local food

After spending two months in Vancouver, I keep writing about these targets. If you cannot wait to know more about it, here the official website of the project.

Water management is, I think, the most worrying environmental issue for the future. But actually, it is not so much an issue for Vancouver as they don’t (and won’t for a while) run out of drinking water. However, about this topic, we always have to be careful. Robert Hicks, senior engineer for Metro Vancouver (local authority delivering regional services for the metropolitan area), and Ilja Tromp-van Meerveld, professor of geography and expert in hydrology at the SFU (Simon Fraser University), helped me to understand the different assets of the region and the problems that could appear.

First of all, as we can guess, this ninth long-term goal is not managed by the city of Vancouver but by Metro Vancouver. The metropolitan area has two main objectives. On the long run, the city has the ambition to "enjoy the best drinking water of any major city in the world". To get there, they will have to get the provincial, national and then international standards. But they also will have to achieve a second goal : reduce water consumption of urban actors. Thus, by 2020, Vancouver wants to "reduce per capita water consumption by 33% over 2006 levels".

"Vancouver has excellent drinking water because there are 3 watersheds that are fully protected, there is no development, barely any human influence", explains Ilja. These 3 sources for the whole metropolitan area are Capilano lake, Seymour lake and Coquitlam lake. Lakes are great natural treatment plants (natural filtration process). Undisturbed forests are also an important asset to keep clean water. Sadly, in some parts of BC, drinking water is not so good, especially in smaller comunities where watersheds are not protected against agriculture or mining for example. Some comunities don’t have enough infrastructure to treat water.

In the region of Vancouver "rivers could provide fresh water for the population of Germany" states Robert. "We are in a very fortune situation, we have gravity in the mountains to move the water" says Robert, enthusiastic. And since the quality is very good, the treatment is simple. So the limitation comes only from the capacity of pipelines and treatments facilities.

Climate change, an issue still vague

There is, in the region, two types of storage :
 snow in the mountains (the main one) ;
 lakes (during the summer, when the snow has melted). For the future, the bigger issue is climate change because, as Robert explains, "as it warms, there will be less and less snow pack (snow on the mountains)", it will melt sooner, "and that is a concern" because they will need a new way to store water (the lakes are not designed to store water for more than 3 months). This problem could lead to a storage problem in the next 15 years. But it is still hard to plan. "The climate change modelling is particularly difficult for this part of British Columbia because of the mountains." These elements add a great complexity to the modellings. So they have difficulties in planning how will be the climate in the next years.

As we can see, inhabitants still have a great role to play to reduce water consumption in Vancouver

Even if they don’t plan to run out of drinking water, authorities are aware of that they must try to reduce water consumption of the metropolitan area. It’s not easy because the price of water is very low (as for electricity). Industries pay for every cubic meter of water that they use, and it’s handled on a municipal basis (and the municipalities pay also for every cubic meter they use). "So it is a market driven solution". And water consumption "becomes part of their decision-making framework" says Robert. But if the water cost is too high, industries could develop their own water ressource (or could try to recycle their water, which would be great...).

Nevertheless, if there is one worrying point about water management in Metro Vancouver, it’s not high consumption but treatments of waste water that "could be improved" according to Ilja. In many parts of the city, sewers and storm water are not separated and it all goes to the ocean. It’s quite disappointing from Vancouver. Sadly, it’s still better than in Victoria, capital of British Columbia, where they don’t treat at all waste water and just send it to the ocean. So yes, I think Ilja is right, it "could be improved"...

Vancouver’s drinking water already meets the provincial water quality standards and Health Canada’s guidelines. "However, at an average daily residential consumption per capita of 320 litres (2006 figure), Vancouver is barely under the Canadian average of 329 litres" moderates the official website of the project. Thus, even if I don’t worry for Vancouver’s drinking water (even in the future), I think they must try to make efforts (and they do), at least to be exemplary (since it’s what they want to be, a model for other cities). The way is long, but they have good shoes.

See you soon, Be green, Ben