Lawn watering to be banned across Metro Vancouver amid continuing drought

Metro Vancouver residents won't be able to water their lawns starting Friday as the region brings in new water restrictions to conserve drinking water.

The region is activating Stage 2 watering restrictions starting Aug 4, as much of the province continues to experience hot, dry temperatures and significant drought conditions.

The regional district says this is the first time restrictions have been raised beyond Stage 1 since 2015 when there was a low snowpack and dry conditions.

Under Stage 2, residents are prohibited from watering their lawns (including schools and city parks, lawns, and grass boulevards) and topping up or filling water features.

Spray parks will not be allowed to run unless they are furnished with user-activated switches.

Sprinklers are permitted for watering trees, shrubs and flowers 5 a.m.-9 a.m. for residential properties and 4 a.m.-9 a.m. for non-residential properties.

Those who violate the restrictions could face fines of up to $500.

Region uses 1 billion litres a day

Metro Vancouver says it typically delivers about one billion litres of treated drinking water a day — but demand spikes by up to 50 per cent in the summer months. 

Water usage is also about 20 per cent higher this summer than last.

Metro Vancouver water committee chair Malcolm Brodie said lawn watering accounts for the highest discretionary use of water outside the home.

"If everybody cuts back on their water use and you multiply that by a couple million, you've really made a dent and a difference in the amount of water that's being used," Brodie said.

"When you figure that every day we're using about enough water to fill BC Place Stadium — that's the kind of amount we're talking about. So it really does fall to us to conserve water as much as we can so that we get through the hotter weather in the summer, we get into the fall where there's going to be more rain and cooler temperatures."

Dry weather could last into October: meteorologist

With the warmer temperatures, B.C. has seen lower-than-normal rainfall across the province — even with a rain event in late July on the South Coast that brought the seasonal totals to about 30-60 per cent of normal values.

Meanwhile, Environment Canada says B.C. residents should expect less rain than usual, not just over the next few weeks, but over the next few months. 

"The probabilities are high for temperatures remaining above seasonal [averages]," warning preparedness meteorologist Armel Castellan said.

"And then looking at the precipitation forecast, [it] does also show that we are looking at the south of B.C. being drier with fairly high probabilities for August, September [and] October."