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One Water - One Region
CVRD Drinking Water and Watershed Protection Program
The Drinking Water and Watershed Protection (DWWP) program is a regional service tasked with helping to protect the region’s water resources.
The One Water One Region strategy sets out the programs, goal, objectives, program areas, priority actions and guiding principles for delivery.
One Goal
Healthy watersheds and aquifers
- recognizing that our personal wellbeing, our communities, our ecosystems and our water resources are all interconnected.
This goal recognizes the linkages between human needs and the needs of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. It also sees groundwater and surface as one, interconnected whole – One Water.
Six Objectives
- Safe source water for domestic supply;
- Resilient watersheds, aquifers and aquatic ecosystems;
- Protection of social and cultural values and enjoyment of recreational amenities and services derived from our watersheds;
- Preparedness for climate change effects on the region’s water resources;
- Strong partnerships working together to ensure healthy watersheds; and,
- Efficient use of water.
Three Program Areas
- Learn - Watershed Science and Information – Collect existing and new information, analyze to create new knowledge and science; create useful tools, analysis and supporting materials and products such as maps, reports and online information systems
- Act - Watercentric Planning – Use science and knowledge to inform policy, land use decisions, and operational activities that affect drinking water and watersheds.
- Share and Collaborate - Watershed Stewardship and Outreach – Work directly with the public and organizations to help residents understand the benefits of water stewardship and how they can contribute.
Fourteen Priority Action Areas
- Improve climate and water monitoring networks
- Improve data management systems
- Characterize surface and groundwater quantity
- Characterize surface and groundwater quality
- Assess ecological health
- Develop water budgets and other products
- Update risk assessments
- Ensure stable long term monitoring and reporting
- Develop and inform policy frameworks
- Inform planning decision making
- Inform operational decision making
- Education and communication
- Support strategic partnerships
- Support watershed restoration
Four Guiding Principles
- Partnership based – we will achieve better results if we work with other organizations and local community groups committed to watershed stewardship and protection.
- Action oriented – Program Areas identified in the Strategy focus on informing and improving future policy, planning and operational decisions specific to drinking water and watershed protection.
- Adaptive management and continuous improvement – Program Areas and initiatives may be revised and adapted in response to new information and changing conditions (e.g., climate change).
- Performance standards – the Program will adhere to strict performance requirements in the design, execution and reporting of the work to ensure consistency and that quality standards are met, especially those related to water science and information acquisition.
Plans, Policy and Projects
- Summary 10 year DWWP Strategy, 2019. Citizen's document for the 10 year DWWP Strategy. Sets out the programs, goal, objectives, program areas, priority actions and guiding principles for delivery.
- Full 10 year DWWP Strategy, 2019. Full version of the 10 year DWWP Strategy.
- Regional Watersheds Risk Analysis, 2019. Combines spatial data for multiple watershed hazards into one multivariate risk assessment framework. Hazards include landslides, floods, groundwater contamination, surface water supply and surface water quality.
- Regional Surface Water Quality Monitoring Strategy, 2020. Outlines a program to characterize surface water quality and develop an understanding of the effects of watershed pressures on surface water quality.
- Regional Hydrometric Monitoring Strategy, 2021. Outlines a program to assist short-term watershed management and drinking water supply forecasting, and future water strategy development.
- Partnership Policy, 2021. Guides Partnerships with non-profit or other governmental entities to further the objectives of the DWWP.
- Watershed Atlas. Presents spatial data available to support characterization of the watersheds.
- Cowichan River Water Supply. Community planning process that develops water supply and storage options to address future water use needs.
Public Outreach and Education Materials
- Watershed Video Series, 2019. Videos of Place, Change and Hope.
- Watershed Snapshots, 2020. Summary characteristics of each watershed or watershed grouping.
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