In reference to Dodi Morrison’s opinion piece of Oct 23, “Water a growing concern”, I am absolutely dumbfounded at the obvious lack of forethought before pen was put to paper.

I believe most would agree that water is a precious and limited commodity to be respected and used wisely. However, I find Ms. Morrison’s suggested solution of eliminating all new building construction, be it sprawl or highrise, in order to save our lovely Okanagan Lake to be ridiculous to the point of being satirical humour. Ms. Morrison would have us freeze everything as it is now and the only way to become a property owner in the entire Okanagan Basin would be for someone to move or die to create a vacancy and thus create a “waiting list” for entry.

Ms. Morrison, I have devoted a meagre five minutes of ponderance to your “solution” and here is what I humbly envision happening should your solution ever be implemented. The price of housing initially, could collapse. Why? Because there would be no need for most builders, plumbers, electricians, roofers, cabinet makers, drywallers, painters, concrete finishers — in short all skilled well-paying trades.

The minimal work left for renos and service work would require few. Then the building supply stores lay off how much staff? Do we then require a Rona, Home Hardware, and an OK Builders too? We can also pretty much eliminate all the staff of the building and development services of all the cities and regional districts. No further need for construction crews of Telus, Terasen Gas, Fortis or city electrical departments. I could go on and on here. And with these directly impacted jobs the good ol’ trickle-down effect impacts the grocery stores and car dealers etc. because all these folks have had to leave in search of employment to areas that, in your words, “will soon be kept busy in other areas with ample water.”

These displaced people will be flooding the market with their homes, thus depressing market value with a glutton of supply. Incidentally, they will be taking their families with them too and since it is the working young that raise children, what a positively vibrant community you will have created. Sorry to all you teachers and educators out there, we won’t need but half of you either for what is left. And how ironic that there are places with ample water when in your very same opinion piece you state “all over the world, land is becoming dryer...”

After the initial price collapse of housing, prices could rebound and even skyrocket. Basic economics tells us that when supply is restricted prices climb. The vacated houses of the once gainfully employed will be bought up by persons not requiring employment. That would be either lottery winners or retired people. Once the market is saturated with owners, do you have any doubt what the people on your waiting list will do? The ones with wealth and a desire to live here will bid up the prices of the restricted supply. So now we not only have a diverse and vibrant community — not — but no affordable housing for the remaining employed in traditionally lower-paying service and retail areas. The only net gain in employment will be in health care and elder care fields. What a utopia!

Ms. Morrison, your cry and call is a noble one. Our society is a dreadful waster of water — statistically Canadians are among the worst. There are other methods, however, to achieve conservation ranging from better education to more painful and unpopular methods such as price increases. It was the price of gasoline that got rid of gas guzzlers, so perhaps paying a dear price at the tap will force us to evaluate how important a quarter acre of green lawn is.

How’s this for a thought: since water is a requirement for survival, we allocate a fixed amount per capita, say 50 gallons per person per day. We are, after all, metered anyway. Even make that amount free and used at your discretion — toilet, drinking, lawn, whatever. For every gallon over your quota ya pay a buck. I’m thinking the tap would go off while you are brushing your teeth and yellow will mellow. My personal irony, I’m in the irrigation business.

Ed Bastac

Penticton