As local water systems face crippling costs for necessary upgrades, the South Okanagan Right to Clean Water (SORCW) group is calling for change in how the province treats the needs of rural communities.
Pointing to local headlines on the $33 million in upgrades for the Sage Mesa water system, the constant photos of manganese-stained brown water in Osoyoos and the on-and-off-again chlorination in Olalla, the group says they all share the same core issue: aging infrastructure that the local, rural users can't afford to pay for on their own.
"The fact that there's so many of our systems failing, that's why we're doing this," the group's spokesperson said. "We want to do this on behalf of everybody in our region, because we know Summerland needs some upgrades, you've seen the pictures of people's water in Osoyoos, this needs to change."
Interior Health (IH) currently lists for communities in its boundaries, 90 of those being in the Okanagan and Similkameen. Another 31 systems across IH have Do Not Consume warnings, with six in the Okanagan.
The Fraser Valley Health Authority currently active boil water advisories for its communities.
SORCW points to how despite having so many more advisories, and the extent of the expensive repairs that rural users are being asked to pay for, when the provincial government issued funding such as through the , the more populous urban communities received more.
"Surrey received $89.9 million, Vancouver $49.1 million, while the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) received just $10.5 million," the group noted. "The funding formula ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½” based on population and growth ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½” fails to account for the high per-capita infrastructure costs in rural areas."
In response to the challenges facing rural communities with much smaller tax bases, SORCW is calling for the province to provide a dedicated funding source for small and rural systems, a regional infrastructure plan to eliminate the chronic water advisories, and cross-agency collaboration between various levels of government and health agencies.
The group has been speaking with local elected officials to get their support and has set up a petition they hope to eventually present to the Provincial Legislature.
After just over a month, SORCW has gathered 100 paper signatures and more than 100 others on the online change.org version.
SORCW is still looking for businesses and volunteers in local communities willing to host and collect the paper signatures and sheets.
"Boundary-Similkameen and South Okanagan families shouldnÎÚÑ»´«Ã½™t have to boil water indefinitely or face unaffordable rate hikes just to meet basic health standards," SORCW says. "ItÎÚÑ»´«Ã½™s time for the Province to treat drinking water in the Interior as a public health priority ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½” not a budget afterthought."
The online petition can be found at , and people interested in volunteering or hosting the paper petition can contact SORCW by emailing .
The group is also asking residents of the region to send letters to their local representatives asking for them to add their voices to the call.
