WWF Applauds Historic B.C. Water Law

 WWF-Canada applauds the B.C. government’s passing this week of new provincial law to bring the province’s 105-year-old water act into the 21st century.

“B.C.’s new Water Sustainability Act will put in place much-needed rules to protect groundwater and environmental flows of B.C.’s lakes and rivers. This important new law will help ensure that there is water for nature and water for people in our future,” says WWF-Canada CEO David Miller.

As an advisor in the development of the legislation, WWF is thrilled to see that, for the first time in Canada, a law will require nature’s needs to be considered in all new water license applications. Protection for healthy river flow, says Miller, will help protect some of Canada’s iconic, and in some cases, at-risk freshwater species.

WWF says new rules to regulate the use of groundwater will also help protect salmon habitat and better regulate the province’s water resources, considered a priority resource by 94 per cent of British Columbians, according to a WWF poll.