For 25 days, Andaleeb Morales travelled 1,400 kilometres from the source of the Fraser River near Mount Robson to the Strait of Georgia. Travelling by canoe and on foot with the Rivershed Society of B.C. and half a dozen paddlers selected by the Sustainable Living Leadership Program, Morales hopes to show Vancouverites — starting with her neighbours — how easy it is to conserve water in their homes. Although Metro Vancouver reservoirs are 60 per cent full following the weekend storm, level-3 water restrictions are still in effect.
During the summer trip, Morales hauled pots of water from the riverbank to camp to boil until it was safe to drink.
Back in her Fairview home, she looks differently at the water that flows, seemingly limitlessly, out of the tap.
“It doesn’t feel right to dump even a little bit away,” she said. “Like when you’re eating dinner and you have a glass of water that you didn’t finish, instead of dumping it down the sink as we normally would do, put it aside and use afterwards to water plants.”
These little measures add up, she said. “It’s small but I feel so guilty now about dumping it down the drain. It went through such a long process to get here. It was dammed, collected, filtered… and it’s so clean.”
Morales’s sustainability project starts at her townhome complex where she will monitor her neighbour’s water use and related costs. She will also distribute the indoor water saving kits that the city no longer sells.
What is a voyageur canoe and what it is like to paddle one?
Andaleeb Morales: I hadn’t really ever paddled in a regular canoe. A regular canoe can have people all in a line, but a voyageur canoe can take up to 20 people with two people on either side. The person in front is leading and one in back is steering. The voyageur canoe also allows us to bring our own packs with us. All our equipment, the entire kitchen, all our gear that we needed to set up camp, it was all loaded up. We were able to live off of the canoe, basically. It took us about an hour to load the canoe and unpack it.
You were completely self-sufficient?
Yes. When I came back, I realized we really didn’t need that many items to survive or even have a good time. We don’t need five different T-shirts. One can be enough. Or you don’t need 20 towels in the house. Launder one. It felt like I needed to declutter. It’s a trend for everyone, but it really hit home because we travelled for 25 days and it drove into us that it is possible. If it was a week travelling, I would not have brought that back home with me. We were also eating healthy, we were all trying to be vegetarian, sticking to all organic fruits and vegetables, grains and cheese.
We noticed along the way there were a lot of farms that were only growing [food] to feed the cows. I think cows are the animals that create the most water waste to keep them alive. We saw tonnes of corn fields, but they were not for human consumption, they were for cows. Also the river was affected by pesticides. The salmon are being affected. Salmon are actually one of the biggest factors for our forests. We got to see how far salmon goes into the forest where bears pick them from the river, leave them and are then eaten by other animals and birds. We learned that 80 per cent of trees growing were salmon-based — nutrients came from salmon carcasses and is transferred into nitrogen.
So, the salmon lifespan extends far beyond spawning.
It affects all of us. There is so much to tell you. We were visiting a lot of native communities, and their livelihood is salmon. All along the Fraser River you’d see all the drying racks. We saw how the fishing ban really affected them. Because the water is low and the temperature is high, the fear is the salmon would not be able to go back and spawn.
Why is the water level of the Fraser River low?
It’s climate change.
What scenery has stayed on your mind since returning?
I hadn’t realized B.C. has canyons, and when we entered the canyons near Lillooet... Everything changed, everything became hot. It felt like a blow-dryer was constantly blowing hot air. There were cactuses everywhere. There were these sculptures made in the sand called hoodoos. That was really eye-opening. Glaciers had created all those formations, and they’re called the cathedrals. We usually see the river from the highway, not the landscape from the river. It’s not even seeing the river, just driving over it really instead of thinking of going into it. You would think it’s pretty disgusting here on this side of the Fraser, but where we started, it was shimmering. The sand, they call it fool’s gold because it was sparkling in the water.
How did the river change as you got closer to Vancouver?
We saw a lot of logs stacked along the river banks and a lot more traffic. At the beginning, there was nobody else, just us — us and wildlife. We saw so many birds, bears and big-horn sheep. As we came into the city, we saw a lot more commercial traffic, boats, trains, bridges. It felt weird.
What didn’t you know about the Fraser River before making this trip?
We saw sturgeon. I didn’t think they were in there. We saw a few jumping. They’re still there. It was kind of depressing at the beginning [of the trip], we were losing hope because there are environmental pollution and disasters, but there is still life in the Fraser River and there is a lot of it. It’s not all negative. I realized also there is a lot of hope and positive things to work towards.
What is threatening the health of the Fraser River Basin System?
There are a lot of things. We had one guest speaker … talk about the Water Sustainability Act, the one [the provincial Liberal government] are just trying to put through. It will affect all of us. We should all be involved and get our comments in.
What’s the concern?
We are not conserving water. Not all of us are metered. Residential homes are, but the big ones like townhome complexes and apartments are not. We’re taking it for granted. Maybe now though, it seems everyone is a little scared. The restrictions have done that. Maybe if we do go to level 4, maybe we will realize we have to put [meters] in.
What are the consequences of ignoring water restrictions?
There are fines. As citizens, we can report it if we see it. It sounds like ratting, but it’s also protecting our water.
What are the environmental consequences?
We’ll run out. Soon we’ll be rationing. We can’t borrow for the future — it will just deplete.
Grim.
It is, but I am really positive we can reduce it now because it’s not dire, we’re not California. They are on so many restrictions and they are saving a lot of water. Just from this year alone, they saved 30 per cent. Our greenest city goal in Vancouver, they want to reduce it by 30 per cent, but we’ve only reached 16 per cent. It’s achievable if every person commits.
You’re testing domestic water conservation strategies with your neighbours. How’s that going?
I hit a road block because I couldn’t purchase [water conservation] kits from the city. They ordered a very limited amount, they didn’t have any left and they’re not reordering them because nobody is really buying them. I guess [Vancouverites] don’t have an incentive to buy them, the water is just here. They don’t see it as a cost-saving thing because it’s not affecting them financially. The kits cost $12 to buy from the city. They have given me the contact for the supplier, based in the U.S. Hopefully I can bring them here and distribute them to my neighbours. It seems everybody is for it, they would like one but they don’t know about it. They don’t know what an aerator is.
What’s an aerator?
It’s like metal screen that you put in taps. It adds bubbles or air into the water. You can see that less water comes through the faucet. You turn the end of the faucet until it pops out, install the aerator and close it back up. You can also add an aerator to a shower head. Everybody can do it.
These come in the city’s water conservation kits?
Each person can buy two each. [The city] said demand is not there but they’ve run out [of kits]. I don’t know anybody who has one of these.
