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Water Conservation

Team WaterSmart

The City of Nanaimo partner's with other water suppliers in the region as part of the Drinking Water and Watershed Protection (DWWP) program. Learn how you can make a difference, the Team WaterSmart webpage shares information and resources for conservation, watershed education, as well as upcoming workshops and public events about water-saving initiatives.

Why Conserve Water?

We use on average 30 million litres of water per day in the winter months and 50 million litres of water per day during the summer. From the 2024 Annual Water Quality Report, the City used 61.4 million litres per day during peak summer flows in 2024. The average daily flow was 36 ML/day, and this annual average daily flow decreased slightly (-3.5%) compared to the previous year, 2023.

Over the past decade, Nanaimo's water consumption has declined almost 20%, and remains lower than both provincial and national rates. Council set an ambitious target for further reduction of 10% per decade. Reducing consumption helps the environment and helps delay expensive upgrades to infrastructure.

The daily consumption in 2025 up to July 24, 2025 is shown in the graph below. currently trending slightly above average. 

For more information on monitoring and water quality explore the Reports page.

Living Water Smart BC

Our efforts directly support the Provincial Living Water Smart initiative by:

  • Watershed protection measures, in conjunction with the forestry companies that own the watershed
  • Nanaimo's Water Conservation Strategy, includes existing efforts to conserve water and future planned initiatives to reduce consumption further to ensure water is available for our needs, as well as for the ecosystems that we share this resource with.
  • Measuring water supplied to the City via meters at major points in the supply system
  • Expanded block rate pricing structure
  • Full cost pricing (user rates reflect the true long-term construction and operation costs)
  • Water Supply Strategic Plan recognizes that water is a shared resource for drinking water, others in the region and as a fisheries necessity
  • Weather station maintenance to track rainfall trends in the City and in the watershed, in support of watershed modelling
  • Participation with industry, First Nations, federal government (Ministry of Environment and Department of Fisheries and Oceans), provincial government (Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations in the Nanaimo River Watershed Management Plan), as well as other initiatives to augment the flow of water during dry periods (e.g. Westwood Lake, Millstone River)

Fish Protection

The City owns and manages significant water infrastructure within the Nanaimo River Watershed, including South Fork Dam and Jump Lake Dam.  The majority of stored water in these reservoirs is for fisheries purposes.  For decades the City has been providing make-up flow for low summer flows in the Nanaimo River, as well as pulse releases during early fall for salmon spawning.  Along with the water released for consumption and domestic use, this additional water creates better spawning and migration conditions for the fish in the river. In accordance with the recommendations in the Nanaimo River Water Management Plan, the City works cooperatively with federal and provincial fisheries departments to manage the additional fisheries flows.

salmon spawning
The south fork of the Nanaimo River is augmented with a fisheries release flow that is critical for fish and other river habitat during summer months low river flows as seen in the water spraying in the foreground at the South Fork dam below.
SF dam & fisheries flow release

Last updated: July 24, 2025

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