Water Use

Following a substantial community effort and many years, Whistler has an updated Official Community Plan and Vision (OCP) that sets the course for the community into the future. Whistler Council adopted the OCP at its meeting June 23, 2020. The new vision and OCP builds on Whistler 2020, Whistler’s previous guiding policy document. Work is underway to align existing community performance indicators with the new vision and OCP. Updated 2019 data will be available in summer 2020.

Water Use

Whistler's total water consumption in 2018 was 5.76 billion litres or 461 litres/person/day. The total usage remained just behind the highest usage ever, and the per capita use increased year-over-year. As per capita usage is still beyond Whistler's performance target of 425 litres/per person/day the outer performance icon ring is still red.

Why monitor this

Water is one of Whistler's most important assets, supporting natural areas, wildlife, residents and visitors. Using water resources wisely is fundamental to an environmentally-responsible approach to living. This issue relates not only to the availability of the resource; it is also a municipal infrastructure priority that can translate into millions of dollars spent or saved.

What this measures

Water use measures the total of water extracted and delivered from RMOW water plants and non-potable systems to end users. Water uses that are not captured within this measure include private purpose uses such as for Whistler's golf courses and Whistler Blackcomb’s mountain operations. To account for the large influx of visitors to the community, the per capita measure uses Whistler's population equivalent to the total community population.