With the City of Kamloops’ new Drought Response Plan in place, you can expect to see signs around the city letting people know what level of drought and watering restrictions we’re in.

Utility Services Manager Greg Wightman says the signs will be similar to the ones that tell people what the fire danger rating is during the summer months.

“It’ll just be another visual as people are out and about town of where we are with drought level restrictions,” Wightman said.

Speaking to Radio NL, Wightman said the biggest change people will notice is when people will be able to water their lawns as Kamloops has moved away from the odd-even watering system to one that allows people to water three days a week depending on their address.

Wightman says another major change is a shift to year-round water restrictions, though he notes the City will still be using the province’s drought level scale as a guideline.

“So there could be a whole bunch of different scenarios where the province may go to Drought Level 5, but we don’t want to change those restrictions based on the fact that we don’t anticipate being at Drought Level 5 for long enough for people to change,” Wightman said.

“We’ll have to see what level of provincial drought we’re at as of April 10 for where we start. We’re going to be doing a whole bunch of things when it comes to how we communicate that out.”

At this time, its not clear what level of drought the Kamloops-area is in, as the province only publicly reports on that between June and November. That said, the April 1 snowpack level across B.C. is at 63 per cent of normal, fuelling concerns about a bad fire season this summer.

For more information on the new watering schedule in Kamloops, and how things will change during times of heightened drought conditions, go here.