Join the conversation on drought resilience and water saving strategies
Starting today, The City of Calgary is inviting Calgarians to share their thoughts on The City’s Drought Resilience Plan, which will include a range of potential strategies that will help protect our water supply, create more drought resilient yards and landscapes, and encourage even more outdoor water conservation.
More than 1.3 million people rely on the Bow and Elbow Rivers for all our water needs. While we have a reliable water supply today, we also know that our rivers face challenges with the pressures of a growing population and changing climate, where extreme weather like droughts will become more common and last longer.
To prepare for these challenges, The City is developing a Drought Resilience Plan that will help our homes, businesses and parks adapt to a drier climate and ensure we continue to have a reliable water supply for future generations of Calgarians.
“Water is our most valuable resource, and with the impacts of climate change and population growth we need to work together and be innovative to make every drop count,” says Pam Duncan, Team Lead of Water Resource Strategy. “Having these important conversations today about making the best use of the water we have available, and using it more efficiently, will help set us up so we have enough now and into the future.”
In the dry summer months, residential water consumption can go up as much as 50 per cent, so part of the Plan is focused on ways to reduce how much water we need and use outdoors. The City is sharing a range of strategies with the public for input including outdoor watering schedules, water wise landscaping programs and incentives, and exploring ways to reuse the water we already have.
From May 24 to June 14, Calgarians can visit engage.calgary.ca/drought to provide feedback through a survey. The engagement is open to all Calgarians who wish to participate. Feedback received from Calgarians will be used to finalize the strategies that will be presented to Council in fall 2022.