Calgary Water Restrictions: Is This the New Normal?

When the major feedermain for Calgary’s water supply broke on the evening of June 7th, 2024, Calgarians were faced with severe water restrictions while crews assessed the damage and began the repair. A city that was already expecting summer water restrictions due to drought was now faced with restrictions to indoor use, too. 

Stage four water restrictions meant curbing indoor use, such as limiting shower time and running washing machines and dishwashers only when full. It also meant a stop to watering outdoor plants and lawns, which drives much of the city’s water consumption during the summer. 

Crews and City officials worked to begin the repairs as quickly as possible, understanding the impact to local businesses and to residents. The City of Calgary called for a larger evaluation of the city’s water mains, which revealed 15 areas that needed immediate, emergency repair.

On August 28, 2024, the City once again enacted severe water restrictions as crews began the other repairs. While Calgarians rallied for the most part in June and July, they were less understanding this time, and for the first two weeks of the repair, the city did not reduce water usage enough. This was likely because of a September heat wave, which made residents reluctant to reduce their outdoor water use. As a result, the City issued fines to people who were caught violating the restrictions. As weather cooled, consumption lowered to sustainable levels. 

Calgary’s water supply situation has raised many questions about infrastructure and how a single point of failure can impact millions of people. And even though this situation was a transmission issue, and not a supply issue, it raises bigger questions for many municipalities about water supply and how cities will deal with drought or other issues affecting supply.

In Alberta, drought has been top of mind this year. At the beginning of the summer, the Alberta government warned that much of the province would experience drought severe enough to have socioeconomic impacts. Some regions, such as the Oldman River Basin, are already susceptible to drought — but ongoing changes in climate have led to projections that the area, which many Albertans rely on for water, could experience even more severe drought in the future. Increasing temperatures could also lead to a reduced snowpack in the mountains and the snowpack melting earlier in the year, causing peak river flows to occur earlier in the year and lower flows later in the year.

Around the province, communities are formulating plans to deal with the challenges of aging infrastructure and those posed by climate change. There are 30 municipalities in the province that have developed climate action plans. These plans aim to be proactive about issues, addressing them before they become more costly and inconvenient for citizens, and ensuring a more resilient community in the process. You can learn more about these plans in detail in the Resilient Communities module of the e-course. 

Calgarians have become intimately acquainted with ways to conserve water, both indoors and out. For the most part, indoor water conservation requires being mindful about the water we use. This means waiting until washing machines and dishwashers are full before running a load, taking shorter showers, and not running the tap longer than we need to.

Calgarians also learned that most of our warm weather consumption comes from outdoor water use. According to the City of Calgary, watering a typical lawn for an hour can use up to 950 litres of water, compared to a dishwasher which uses approximately 35 litres per cycle. Dr. Tricia Studyk, P.Eng, professor in the Schulich School of Engineering and Faculty of Arts, and Canada Research Chair in Hydrologic Modelling, suggests it’s long past time for us to abandon the perfectly manicured lawn in favour of drought-tolerant, native grasses. She acknowledges that banning the lawn is a tough sell for many Calgarians, who are used to cultivating lush green lawns, but a dwindling water supply could mean it’s necessary.