Homeless in Vancouver: Time for nature to take over watering sidewalks?
Thank goodness that’s almost over for another year.
The autumn rains may be just in time. I’m not sure we could have gone another month watering the sidewalks and the roads and our lawns.
There’s only so much water in our reservoirs; something surely had to give, and soon.
Obviously that would’ve been the lawns and then the roads. Watering the grass, after all, is a case of Vancouverites going that extra distance to indulge their love of nature.
But not if it comes at the expense of our sidewalks—which must—MUST—be watered!
Why? Because we always have. That's why!
Where natural forces once met this need 365 days a year, it now falls to the human agency to make up for the shortage of natural rainfall during much of the summer.
It’s a strain on our resources but it has to be done. It has been done for several years now and hopefully we’re just about done our part for another year.
Look, none of us like the extra work but there’s no use complaining. The sidewalks aren’t going to water themselves!
Nobody said global warming would be easy to deal with. And frankly, if it keeps up this way, estimates are that in five years we’ll all have to start watering our shingles as well.
Comments
2 Comments
Hydrometers should be in building code
Sep 1, 2014 at 12:32pm
I see a lot of this in the Killarney neighbourhood.
Water flowing off of saturated lawns, pooling against our house foundation; running down the gutter in a stream, carrying debris to the storm drain where it circles like turds being flushed.
And a new house being built (or just built) on every single block.
There needs to be a building code amendment: new homes with automatic sprinklers *must* have hydrometers to turn off the sprinklers when the lawn's wet.
Easy.
In my dreams: also rain / grey water cisterns to augment the sprinkler systems.
Harder, but not a bad idea. When spending close to $1,000,000 for a home just to tear it down and rebuild, they can't (honestly) claim that the cost of such things is a factor.
Stanley Q Woodvine
Sep 1, 2014 at 11:44pm
@Hhydro
Another idea is to properly edge lawns. Helps prevent excess water sheeting off the lawn onto sidewalks and roads. Instead it gets caught in the gutter of the edging and is soaked up by the soil.