Residents of Picture Butte who did their part last week to help reduce overall water consumption while the town’s water plant recovered from a drastic drop in water supply should give themselves a pat on the back.
Even in the face of a desperate and potentially dangerous situation enough residents took their responsibility as good citizens to heart and accepted the town’s voluntary water restriction.
Due to an unforeseen set of circumstances, a 10 inch water line was mistakenly turned on and ran for several hours depleting the town’s treated water supply to dangerous levels last Thursday.
Alberta Environment was pushing the town to put on a mandatory water restriction but the town’s mayor argued in favour of a voluntary water restrictions because it has actually proven to be more successful in the past.
It seems when residents are told they have to do something they are less inclined to do so, but when they are asked to cooperate they respond in a positive way.
Over the last few years Picture Butte has struggled at times, during the summer months when temperatures have risen, to keep up to the demand for water given the abundance of water used for lawns and gardens.
When mandatory water restrictions have been placed on the community, the result has actually been the opposite of what the restrictions have sought to achieve. Instead of reducing water consumption the mandatory restrictions have actually resulted in increased consumption.
It seems when residents are told they can only water on certain days, they make the most of it, over watering and consuming as much as they can in their allotted time limit.
It would appear human nature dictates we take what we can get when we can get it.
Fortunately this time around the town asked for assistance through a voluntary restriction and those who are responsible citizens took the request to heart. They understand that by pulling together with like minded citizens they could help see the town through the crisis.
It’s too bad there are still those who put their own personal needs and selfish desires above the good of the whole community.
There were those who ignored the request to reduce water use figuring some how they were above the restriction and the rest of the community could reduce while they carried on using as much water as they wanted.
Those who cooperated with the voluntary restriction can be proud of the fact they help the town’s water plant recover as quickly as possible, not only ensuring the water plant was at full capacity sooner rather than later, but also ensuring the town was protected in the case of a fire.
Those who ignored the restriction should be thanking their neighbours who did reduce the water consumption because if their home had caught fire they might have been singing a different tune.