Now is the time: Speak up for BC's water

WWF

A few weeks ago we published our Top Ten Reasons Why BC Needs a New BC Water Act and promised to assess the government’s new proposal to see how it measures up.  We are working hard to analyze the government’s latest, final legislative proposal and will publish our score card very soon.
In the meantime  we wanted to encourage everyone who cares about water in our province to express their views. Let the Ministry of Environment know how you feel about the proposal. If you support a law that protects water for nature, make your voice heard.

© Andy Wright
©Andrew S. Wright/ WWF-Canada

At WWF, we believe the overriding priority for the new Act is to put environmental flow protections in place, and to make them strong. With over 1/3 of  BC’s freshwater fish  now classified at risk –  36.7% of our freshwater fish are red-listed according to this 2007 Conservation Data Centre report (see page 300)  – the new BC Water Sustainability Act is urgently needed.
The new Act needs to ensure that environmental flows for fish, amphibians, invertebrates and aquatic ecosystems are given  full protection. Let’s protect water for tailed frogs. Let’s protect it for the Nooksack Dace and Salish Sucker. Let’s protect it for the Giant Salamander.  And let’s protect it for the  for Fraser River sockeye that still face an uncertain future, according to the Cohen Commission report,  still awaiting a federal government response a full year after it was released.
Sockeye salmons (Oncorhynchus nerka), adults migrating up the Adams River to spawn. B.C. Canada © Michel Roggo / WWF-Canon
Sockeye salmons (Oncorhynchus nerka), adults migrating up the Adams River to spawn.  © Michel Roggo / WWF-Canon

We need provisions in the new BC Water Sustainability Act  that  require all  water licences, both  new and existing, both surface and groundwater,  to be subject to environmental flow requirements. We need the law to require e-flow levels to be established for all rivers and streams in BC . Many other US states and countries have taken this step to protect water for nature. BC can too.
Click here  for more information about environmental flow law, and what should be in BC’s new law.
 Speak up for water. Now is the time. The government is accepting public input until November 15th at