Dear editor,
Returned to the Comox Valley only see to see the drought had continued and the garden wasn’t doing so well.
Then I checked my two favourite local papers. Saw letters to the editor concerning the council and mayor of Comox. They want to add more “housing” to the town. People are of course concerned about the heights of these new buildings. However, I do have another concern: water. With each additional dwelling unit built in Comox, and the rest of the Comox Valley, there is more demand on our water supply. Our water supply isn’t growing. It’s static. If the rains and snow don’t come, our water supply will dwindle. If you have any doubts about what can happen just have a look at California and some of their major lakes: Lake Shasta, Folsom Lake, and Lake Oroville. They are bottoming out. Boats no longer float. The M.S. “ice cube/cold water” challenge is considered controversial in some areas because it “wastes” water.
Some may think it can’t happen here, but it can and has in the distant past. To the mayors and other politicians in the Comox Valley, it’s time to have a closer look at our water supply and how it’s managed. One way of ensuring voter/citizens have a decent supply of water is to curtail development. Now of course there will be howls around the Valley and politicians will be gasping at the thought their developer friends might not be able to make money, but really folks we ought to sit back and have a good think about “growing” our population in times of drought.
We had some of the politicians talking some years ago about green, green, green. Got rid of plastic bags. Painted the roads green for bikes. When it comes to looking at population growth outstripping our water supply, not so much. It impedes “growth” and the “ability to make money”. At some point we will have to stop. We can think about it now and develop a long term plan or as the editorial cartoon so clearly messaged, “stage 4--no water in the tap”.
E. A. Foster
Comox