From crisis to conservation: Calgary wants your input on its water plan

Calgary’s future is flowing through conversations like this one. The city is asking Calgarians to weigh in on its updated Water Efficiency Plan, a roadmap for how to protect every drop as our population grows and our climate keeps changing.

The plan will shape how to conserve, how to build, and where to invest in programs and tools to help everyone use water more efficiently by 2026.

Calgarians have done this before — the original 30-in-30 plan hit its target a decade early, cutting per-person water use significantly.

“We know that Calgary is growing and on track to reach two million people within the next 10 years, and so we want to make sure that the increasing number of homes, businesses and institutions that are going to rely on the water system have what they need, especially in light of changing precipitation patterns like rain and snowfall and longer hotter and drier summers,” explained Rehana Rajabali, leader of Environmental Planning & Policy at the City of Calgary.

But, the push for conservation feels different now; Calgarians still remember the 2024 water-main break… the boil-water advisories, the restrictions, and how quickly routines were changed.

City officials say they are certainly leveraging the lessons learned from the feeder main break but the push to update the Water Efficiency Plan actually came in 2023, when council approved Calgary’s drought resilience plan.

They say lived experience matters… your habits, your challenges, your ideas will help shape the 2026 Water Efficiency Plan.

Calgarians can weigh in until Dec. 7 at engage.calgary.ca/waterefficiency