Like most other jurisdictions, the District of Peachland wants to grow. There are numerous plans to build more housing developments, which require additional infrastructure.
This term is used generically in most discussions of urban development, but it means connecting new homes with electricity, sewer service and WATER.
Our water supply is not infinite, and industrial commercial logging has changed the water cycle regime over the years, which has been exacerbated by climate change. The source of Peachland’s water is slowly becoming unreliable, as winter droughts and wildfires become more frequent.
The big question is do we have enough water to support all these new homes. There is no definitive answer. A plethora of consultants reports, commissioned by the District of Peachland over the years, each with varying terms of reference and objectives, contradict each other, provide dubious engineering “solutions” or perhaps generated the conclusions the proponents wanted to hear. Read our timeline article here -Good till the Last Drop
Peachland will not be the first community to have severe water shortages – but if we manage modest growth, acknowledging that there are limiting factors to the population, we might be successful at avoiding the worst fate. However, we believe it is a folly to continue to allow unbridled development without concrete data that supports water availability and protection for an intact watershed.
