Water Conservation Strategy
Providing the community with safe and high-quality drinking water is a top priority for the City of Saskatoon (City). A changing climate and aging water treatment infrastructure are risks to our water system. Water conservation can help ensure that we can meet the community’s water needs in the long term, even with a growing population.
Saskatoon’s Water Conservation Strategy provides a roadmap of actions that will help reduce water use in the community and in the City’s own operations. The Strategy is founded upon four main reasons for conserving water:
- Help households and business moderate their water use.
- The pressing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Increase water system resiliency and prepare for a changing climate.
- Help manage water demand to ease the strain on the City’s water system.
The Benefits of Water Conservation
- Reduced average day demand, which in turn:
- Reduces chemical use in the treatment process.
- Reduces energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
- Reduced peak-day demands on water and wastewater systems that may be nearing capacity, thereby creating opportunities to defer or avoid spending on capacity expansion projects.
- Enabling residents and businesses to monitor their water consumption, facilitating changes in behaviour and supporting water affordability.
- Demonstrating care of the environment and wise use of resources.
- Improving climate change adaptation and increasing resilience.
- Helping our City and community move toward sustainability targets and commitments
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How Can We Save Water
Residents can:
- Replace inefficient toilets, taps, showerheads, clothes washers, and dishwashers.
- Outdoors, use water wisely by tuning-up irrigation systems and not over watering.
- Use a broom instead of a hose when cleaning decks and driveways.
- Shut off taps when brushing teeth or shaving.
- Only run the dishwasher when it’s full.
- Find and repair leaks.
Businesses can:
- Replace inefficient fixtures and appliances.
- Evaluate water use in production processes.
- Install water-saving irrigation control systems.
- Find and repair leaks.
The City can:
- Install water-saving fixtures in civic facilities
- Find and fix leaks in the underground distribution system
- Keep parks healthy using less water and naturalizing more areas; advanced irrigation control systems and weather monitoring technologies may be able to keep grass healthy with less water
- Develop incentive programs to help the community save water
- Help the community to better understand their water use through education programs and providing clear information