Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
Officials are asking people to conserve water in areas affected by low rainfall and the extreme heatwave in late June and early July. The province says drought is affecting most of southern British Columbia and the central Interior. There is water scarcity on Vancouver Island and low flow levels in waterways there as well as in the entire Thompson-Nicola region, the Cariboo, Shuswap and Okanagan.
