Last week, we hosted our Water Luncheon Series with guest speaker Jimmy Zammar, Director of Integrated Planning and Utility Division for The City of Vancouver. In his talk, "Transforming the City of Vancouver's Water Future," he discussed the City's organizational paradigm shift currently underway. This new integrated city-wide approach, One Water, "aims to ensure that communities and ecosystems thrive into the future by looking into the full water cycle in all its forms: drinking water, wastewater, rainwater, surface water, and groundwater." Jimmy provided a historical summary of City water planning. He highlighted the City's vision of planning and managing water to respond to climate change, offer reliable services to communities, protect the environment and natural systems, and embed holistic water management as a foundation for city planning.
In the Q&A following Jimmy's talk, examples of the questions asked by attendees included: "Can you elaborate on the types of nature-based solutions that are encouraged within the city? How are these encouraged/ enforced on public and private properties?" and "How are you engaging urban Indigenous communities?"
In the group discussion, Jimmy touched on the City's water management initiatives for private realm improvements, development of parks and open spaces, streetscape improvements and shared information about the "Rain City Strategy." He also highlighted the City's engagement project with urban Indigenous youth. If you weren't able to make Jimmy's talk, you can learn more about the City of Vancouver, here.
