Water shortage in a valley of lakes
How by any stretch of the imagination can we in the Okanagan be short of fresh water? Is this another government con job or simply another case of bad management by local government?
Have you ever driven from Osoyoos to Vernon? If so, no, well allow me a little ponderance here.
Starting from Osoyoos and heading north, on your right you see Osoyoos Lake — and its no duck pond — it is huge, and it is full of, yes you guessed it, fresh water.
Continue along Highway 97 towards little old Oliver and you will have Tuc-el-nuit Lake and Gallagher Lake. Now keep going just down the road a little and you will pass Vaseux Lake again — a big lake full of fresh water — then but a few kilometers down Highway 97 you will arrive in Okanagan Falls which is perched on the edge of a massive lake called Skaha Lake.
Again all fresh water.
Hey let’s not stop now that we’re are on a wave, so keep going along Highway 97 to Penticton — a city wedged between two huge lakes — again full of fresh water. A beach on the south side (Skaha Lake) then on the north side, another gigantic lake called Okanagan Lake and again all nice fresh water.
But, get this, this lake takes you past communities like Summerland, Peachland, Westbank and Kelowna. The lake continues to Vernon and beyond, but not before you also pass another huge lake called Kalamalka with its glacier-fed fresh water.
Hey enough you say, we get the message we have plenty of fresh water.
Well may I ask why we have water shortage signs up during this heat wave?
In B.C., we are incredibly lucky. We have plenty of everything including fresh water and don’t let government tell you otherwise! Because, unlike the Lower Mainland, we do not have the population densities. Don Smithyman Oliver