Overall water use isn’t reduced by summer limits

Researchers at Waterloo Engineering have found that outdoor watering restrictions in Canada do little to reduce overall water consumption during the summer.

A study by Sara Finley, a PhD student, and Nandita Basu, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, looked at 10 mid-sized cities with summer watering bylaws and five cities that don’t impose any limits.

Summer water consumption in some of Canada’s driest cities can double or even triple winter averages.

“Cities often impose summer water use bylaws to reduce that demand surplus so that they can prolong the useful life of their infrastructure as they grow,” Finley said. “Based on our analysis, it seems like these restrictions are only minimally effective in that goal.”

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