In light of more stringent watering restrictions in recent weeks some members of the public have questioned whether the City of North Vancouver’s plan to bring in a 1,000-foot water slide later this summer is a good idea.
The massive slide will run from Keith Road to Third Street, in conjunction with a Car Free Day street festival in Lower Lonsdale on Aug. 22. The water being used for the slide, as the city explained, will be chlorinated for health reasons and also recirculated —thereby reducing the amount of H20 needed by about 80 per cent.
Slide the City plans on using about 50,000 litres of water, less than $100 worth, for the event, explained CNV spokesperson Connie Rabold. “For context, a garden sprinkler running for an hour uses between 1,000 and 1,500 litres of water,” said Rabold.
At the end of the day, the chlorinated water from the slide will be decanted into the city’s sanitary sewer system and treated before being released into the environment. The city is also looking at collecting some of the water to irrigate vegetation in local parks.
“This could include filling city water trucks at the bottom of the slide for use in the following days, or using some of the water more locally in Victoria Park,” said Rabold.
Metro Vancouver, meanwhile, has restricted lawn sprinkling to once a week to help mitigate the dwindling supply of drinking water. The Seymour, Capilano and Coquitlam reservoirs were 79 per cent full at the start of July — water levels that are normally seen in early August.
