However, a review of data provided by some municipal water utilities shows there\u2019s good reason to target residential customers with conservation measures. <\/p>\n
In most of Nova Scotia\u2019s most populated areas, residential water use far outstrips that of industrial and commercial usage combined. <\/p>\n
In the Halifax Regional Municipality, residential and multi-residential customers accounted for 63 per cent of water consumption in 2024-25. Commercial, institutional and industrial customers accounted for 20, 11 and five per cent, respectively, in the same year. <\/p>\n
In Cape Breton Regional Municipality, residential users represented 72 per cent of the water use in 2024-25; in Kentville, figures for 2024 show small meter customers used 55 per cent of the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bridgewater is the exception. There, commercial water customers just outpaced residential ones for total usage in 2024-25 by 52 per cent to 48. The commercial use is driven by the Michelin tire plant, which accounts for 28 per cent of the town\u2019s water use. <\/p>\n
Truro and New Glasgow don\u2019t track commercial and residential consumption separately.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The complaint about commercial customers and water use is one that Halifax Water officials say they hear on a semi-regular basis. But spokesperson Brittany Smith said it\u2019s a misunderstanding of how water conservation measures work. <\/p>\n
\u201cAll the restrictions [that] apply to residential would have also applied to businesses as well,\u201d she said in an interview.<\/p>\n
She said that, for instance, if a business and a private home have flower gardens on their properties, neither would be able to water them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said the utility is also trying not to make the hardship of a drought any more of an economic crisis for business owners \u2014 and conversations are always underway about reducing overall consumption.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re really working to try to balance between conservation measures and financial impacts to businesses,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we’re working with those large-consumption users \u2026 to see which ways they could reduce their water consumptions and a more tailored approach depending on what their business is.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Martin Tango, engineering professor at Acadia University, said the data usage makes sense given the sheer number of residential customers compared to commercial.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt home, there’s the dishwasher, there are laundries, and then there is the way you do your daily routine like brushing your teeth or or washing dishes in the sink,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766488029_598_default.jpg\")
Martin Tango, Acadia University professor, says measures more directly target residential consumers, who are the biggest consumer group. (Martin Tango\/Submitted)<\/p>\n
He said water conservation measures may be inconvenient, but they\u2019re an effective way of targeting high-consumption activities that won\u2019t negatively impact the economy, people\u2019s jobs, businesses or other parts of society.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tango added that some commercial users like warehouses, stores and offices typically keep their consumption pretty low. Others, like golf courses, manufacturing facilities, car washes and breweries, need a lot of water to operate but the cumulative usage still remains below that of residential customers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He adds that many commercial users pay water haulers or have irrigation ponds available to them in times of drought.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some industrial consumers, if they have the lawn or if their property has space around the building, then they would hire landscaping companies to \u2026 irrigate the lawn,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smith added that some of the water conservation practices of certain businesses are not known by the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were told that most car washes do use recycled water. So perhaps that might not be known by the general car wash user,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Future droughts<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite the complaints, Smith said the mandatory conservation measures worked, with water usage falling between the order\u2019s implementation in August to when it was fully lifted in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were happy that residential and commercial customers were able to reduce their consumption by around 10 per cent which really helped during the drought,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Smith said the utility has a 30-year plan that will invest in better infrastructure for harsher climate conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tango said if more frequent and intense droughts hit the province in the future, governments, industries and regular residents need water management solutions that go beyond usage restrictions.<\/p>\n But he said it\u2019s most important for people to understand why water conservation is important year-round and not just during a drought.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most and very important thing is awareness,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you empower me or if I buy into these water conservation measures, then I’ll do the right thing time and time again. So if I do it, my neighbour will do it, my family member will do it.\u201d<\/p>\n MORE TOP STORIES:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the worst drought in decades dragged on through the summer of 2025, some Nova Scotians who use…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[18,440,19,17,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-247441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115768567731773944","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}