Editor’s Note: Basil Creek dried up to a trickle and some of the shallow wells on Cortes Island stopped recharging during the 2022 and 2023 droughts. There have been similar reports from Quadra Island, where the ICAN Water Security Team and Wei Wai Kum are studying the situation. So far, these appear to be shallow aquifer issues and the deep aquifers on both islands appear to be healthy. The ICAN Team could have been speaking for both teams when it wrote, the ‘aquifers appear to be sufficient for current levels of human use, BUT we may be drawing down our aquifers.’ The level of uncertainty is higher on Cortes, where we not yet been able to raise the funding for the necessary water studies.

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The BC Green Party is calling for changes in the way the province deals with drought to ensure both farmers and the environment have access to enough water to flourish as climate change advances. 

Arzeena Hamir, the Green candidate for Courtenay-Comox, said the party aims to make it easier and cheaper for farmers to build dugouts on farms that capture and store rainwater, seek amnesty for farmers facing large fines for unlicensed water use, and ensure water for farming food and protecting nature takes precedence over clear-cut logging in watersheds, commercial bottling needs, or to frack for gas during droughts.

Continue reading Who gets first dibs on water? BC Greens say farmers →