They will be rolling out the barrel in Wingham today, in fact they will be rolling out one thousand rain barrels.
Its a first of its kind of an initiative by the Insurance Bureau of Canada to reduce the amount of rain water that is entering the towns sewer system and help reduce claims from sewer back ups during heavy rain storms.
Mary Lou O’Reilly is the Vice President of the Insurance Bureau of Canada and says the industry has noticed an increase in insurance claims resulting from more severe weather patterns.
Natural disaster claims today are 20 times higher than they were 30 years ago.
She says this is the first time anyone has set out to measure by how much the use of rain barrels by an entire community can help to reduce sewer overflows during intense rainstorms
O’Reilly says Wingham met all the criteria for the pilot: a residential base of around 1,000 homes, a history of sewer backup overflows during intense rain storms and a local government committed to the project.
She adds municipalities across the country are dealing with this issue and by encouraging entire communities to collect rain water, we hope to reduce the number of flooded basements and the demand for treated water.
A specially designed weather station will allow North HuronTownship to compare the amount of water entering the sewer system historically with the amount entering after homeowners are using rain barrels.