Dear Editor:
Re: Water will be shut off, Summerland Review, Sept. 29.
By the time I read to the end of this article, I had a basic plan for managing my life for three days without running water: store rainwater in buckets for flushing toilet, store tap water in containers for basic hygiene (have shower the day before shutoff), and store or buy five gallons of drinking water.
Then I read the letter from Roy Roope, and must respond.
Summerland has a strong community of neighbours helping neighbours; homes and businesses have five months to make a plan for this event.
I suggest that our town treat the water shutoff as an Emergency Preparedness exercise. (All Emergency Preparedness brochures suggest we have at least three days of drinking water on hand, at all times).
If we cannot prepare for this known event five months in the future, then we most certainly are not ready for an actual emergency!
Causes could be natural events such as storms,floods,fires or earthquakes, or for that matter, unexpected equipment failure in our infrastructure — electrical power, water or sewer transport, communications systems.
We may very well be presented with options to a total shutdown.
Meanwhile, we ought to be proactive with our emergency response measures.
Heather S. Ross
Summerland
