(Quebec) Struggling with drinking water supply problems, the City of Quebec intends to cut the grass under the foot of lawn sprinklers and driveways.
Posted at 5:28 p.m.
The capital intends to limit the watering of lawns to two evenings a week from this summer, then to one evening a week from 2023. It will also be forbidden to water when it rains.
Watering “of an exterior non-vegetated surface, such as a parking lot” will only be permitted between 1er May and June 15, according to this proposal which will be debated Monday evening at the municipal council.
“We have been experiencing these problems for two years, problems that we had never experienced before,” explained Mayor Bruno Marchand on Monday at a press conference.
The mayor of Quebec recalled that last summer, the municipality had experienced three critical episodes during which drinking water supplies failed.
“Studies show us that it came from people who watered their lawns. We have nothing against people who water their lawn, but when it creates a problem to supply drinking water to the people of the city, it poses a problem for us, ”said the mayor.
The city’s new policy also wants to mark out water games – which must be equipped with an on-call triggering system – and car washes.
long live clover
But it is the regulations on the watering of lawns that are likely to affect the greatest number. According to Mayor Marchand, citizens will have to change their behavior, in particular by favoring the recovery of rainwater or the addition of clover to their lawn. Clover is more resistant than grass to drought and is less water-intensive.
“It may be that the kentuckygrassthis seed that we use to have beautiful green lawns, is less and less popular, that we mix clover with our lawns for example”, noted Bruno Marchand.
“There are ecological effects in treating water, making it drinkable and using it to water lawns,” he says. But beyond that, the first element is that last year we exceeded our critical zone of water supply capacity at three times. »
The mayor indicates that his administration is not currently considering the installation of water meters, even if it does not close the door to this idea. The City of Quebec draws its drinking water mainly from Lake Saint-Charles.
The Marchand administration indicates that it is not currently in repression mode. Citizens should not be fined for “weeks or even months”.
“We have a team of students who will crisscross the neighborhoods to explain to people why we do it. It is pedagogy. We don’t do this to piss people off. »