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The quick read: The Okanagan remains at drought level 4, and Environment Canada expects a warmer-than-normal October through December, according to the Kelowna Grapevine's October 9 roundup. The City of Kelowna has been under Stage 2 water restrictions since August 6, and late in the summer the city said it would cut its own water use by 20 per cent while warning hundreds of users who exceeded their allotments, Castanet reported. Council candidate Kevin Kraft is campaigning on planning for high-elevation water storage before emergencies hit. Rationing residents is a policy choice; building storage is a solution.

The rain isn't coming to save us.

The Okanagan remains at drought level 4, and Environment Canada expects a warmer-than-normal October through December, the Kelowna Grapevine reported October 9.

Kelowna has been under Stage 2 water restrictions since August 6 — twice-a-week watering rules that manage scarcity instead of eliminating it.

Late in the summer, the city said it would cut its own water use by 20 per cent, and warned hundreds of users on the McCulloch system who exceeded their allotments that shutoffs were coming, Castanet reported.

Conservation matters, but let's be honest about what rationing is: managing scarcity instead of eliminating it.

The candidates who grasp this are talking about storage.

Council candidate Kevin Kraft — a farmer and regional firefighter — is campaigning on planning for high-elevation water storage and better-prepared homeowners before emergencies, not after, at the KelownaNow all-candidates forum.

He's right about the principle, and it applies far beyond one candidate's platform.

Every year of drought without new storage is a year the region chose to be rationed instead of resilient.

Ask your council candidates what they'll actually build — not just what they'll restrict.