Slide the City event in North Vancouver conserves water and sells out

The organizers of Slide the City say they were willing to go to any length to save water – and their sold out event.

Thousands descended on North Vancouver today, the only Metro Vancouver city to host a Slide the City event. A section of Lonsdale Ave was shut down, making way for a 1000 ft water slide between Victoria Park and 4th Street. People began lining up at 8 a.m., one hour before the gates opened.

All of this amidst Stage Three water restrictions in the city, though the mayor says no rules were broken to host this event.

“We are not using metro water, so we’re not breaking any rules. Even if we were using metro water, we’d still be allowed to put this on today,” said Darrell Mussatto, North Vancouver’s Mayor.

Still, the city and organizers say they wanted to be responsible.

All of the water used was trucked in from a private company Abbotsford. Once it gets to the bottom of the slide, the water is collected in a pool at the bottom. It’s filtered, tested every fifteen minutes, then recirculated. The cost was covered entirely by the organizers.

“A lot of states and a lot of provinces have been affected by the drought, and water conservation is very important to us as well,” said Rachel Thomas, Slide the City Event Organizer.

“We were willing to go to whatever lengths we need to make sure that we have a fun event but that we’re also taking care of the needs of the community.”

Once everything has wrapped up for the day, all of the water will be used for irrigation in Victoria Park and other areas of North Vancouver.

The city’s mayor says he’s already looking ahead to 2016.

“We’ll evaluate this at the end of the day to make sure that it was what we thought it was and, if there are no major problems, I hope to see it back next year.”