Starting Monday, July 12, the City of Kelowna’s water utility will move to stage one water restrictions.
The city cited dry, hot weather conditions, provincial drought declarations and a high-level demand for water in Kelowna as the main factors that prompted the move.
“We’ve seen hot weather and very little rain in the past few weeks and that trend is predicted to continue through the summer,” said Andrew Weremy, the city’s water operations manager.
Weremy said that the change to stage one restrictions is not only a response to the weather, but it’s also a call for residents to be extra vigilant in terms of limiting their water use.
“The reality is that we don’t know how long drought conditions will last, so we need to be prudent,” he said.
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The schedule for stage one’s watering restriction, which is designed to reduce total and peak water use by 10 per cent, is as follows:
- Automatic irrigation systems: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for odd-numbered addresses. Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays for even-numbered addresses.
- Manual sprinklers and garden watering: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for odd-numbered addresses. Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays for even-numbered addresses.
- Cleaning outdoor surfaces: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays for odd-numbered addresses. Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays for even-numbered addresses.
Additional watering restrictions and designated watering times include:
- Handheld watering and manual sprinklers can operate between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. or 7 p.m. and 12 a.m. on designated days.
- Automatic sprinklers can operate between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. on designated days.
*A previous version of the article contained incorrect watering days for even-numbered addresses. This error has been corrected, and the correct days are now shown.
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