A $30 million investment by the BC Government will help implement new efforts to monitor water quantity in the East Kootenay and wider region.
The Province announced the funding on Earth Day last week, with a portion of the funds being provided to Living Lakes Canada.
Living Lakes plans to use the money to deploy their Columbia Basin Water Monitoring Framework and the associated Columbia Basin Water Hub.
Executive Director Kat Hartwig says these projects are both based on the impact a warmer future will have on water availability.
“What we’re trying to do is engage citizens and community water stewardship groups to use provincial and federal monitoring protocols to check the water quality and water quantity in their lakes and streams and provide that information then to decision makers so that we have more informed decisions around water use,” Hartwig says.
Hartwig says these projects will focus on future water availability throughout the entire region.
“With climate change underway now, we can anticipate a lot of impacts of water in our region, both in the East Kootenay and other parts of BC,” Hartwig says. “So what I think the government is trying to do and what we’re also encouraging our government to do is to work with local communities so we can start monitoring the impact of climate to our watershed and to our lakes and to our rivers.”
More information on the Columbia Basin water Monitoring Framework can be found here.
– From Living Lakes Canada
– Kat Hartwig, Living Lakes Canada Executive Director
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