Written by Neil McDonald
Click to navigate directly to each section.
- Overview
- Why Our Water Is Different
- What We Can Control
- How Water Affects Other Issues in Waterloo Region
- Our Water Belongs to Us, Or Does It?
- What You Can Do
- Frequently Asked Questions
Overview
We can’t spell Waterloo Region without water. We also can’t live without water, which makes safeguarding this precious resource one of the prime concerns of this October’s municipal elections.
In the land of the Great Lakes, water is something we’re often guilty of taking for granted. However, in December 2025, the region announced its largest water system had hit a capacity limit, and new housing and business development in some fast-growing areas were put on hold.
Suddenly, water accessibility went from being assumed to a problem that our region needs to address urgently to ensure availability now and in the long-term, making it one of the most important issues on the ballot this fall.
Why Our Water Is Different
Most municipalities pull their drinking water from a lake or a big river. In Waterloo Region, however, roughly three-quarters of our drinking water comes from underground aquifers (the rest is from the Grand River).
These aquifers are fed by rain and snowmelt filtering down through the Waterloo Moraine, a thick band of glacial sediment left behind after the last ice age.
As such, there’s no simple “run a bigger pipe from the lake” fix waiting in the wings, although a long-discussed multi-billion dollar pipeline to Lake Erie, roughly 100 kilometres away, was resurrected as an option during the recent water capacity crisis.
To shield ourselves against future water shortages, we’ll need to protect drinking water sources, invest in reliable infrastructure, conserve water, foster groundwater recharge areas and protect watersheds, and ensure that growth never exceeds our long-term capacity.
Ask Your Candidates
Protecting the Waterloo Moraine is critical. What approaches would you use to safeguard the Moraine?
What We Can Control
Did You Know?
In Ontario, municipalities and regional governments are responsible for ensuring that residents have safe, reliable, and sustainable drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services. While provincial laws set the standards, municipalities own, operate, and plan much of the infrastructure that protects public health and the environment.
Specifically, our regional and municipal governments play critical roles in:
- Operating drinking water treatment plants and well systems
- Protecting drinking water by monitoring water quality to ensure it meets provincial safety standards
- Protecting municipal wells and surface water sources
- Collecting and treating wastewater before it’s returned to rivers and streams
- Maintaining sewer systems and treatment facilities
- Planning infrastructure upgrades to support population growth
- Preventing pollution that could harm waterways and aquatic ecosystems
- Designing and maintaining stormwater management systems that reduce flooding during heavy rainfall
- Protecting homes, businesses, and infrastructure
- Improving water quality before runoff enters rivers and streams
By treating water as finite and life-sustaining, and integrating water management into every planning decision, municipalities can build healthier, more resilient, and more sustainable communities.
How Water Affects Other Issues in Waterloo Region
As with all of the issues included in our nine vision statements, water security policy is not a standalone concern, but one which affects (and is affected by) all of the others in turn. Here’s a few ways that water availability and capacity issues influence other areas at stake in the region.
The Impact on Growth and New Housing
Waterloo Region is planning for a population of 923,000 by 2051, up from roughly 700,000 today. And, though it may not be dominating local headlines as much lately, the water capacity crisis is not over.
As noted in the latter article above, some capacity has been restored but “the approval and construction of new development won’t be happening all at once, but rather in stages over the next six years as new water is added to the system.”
New developments can’t be serviced without enough water and wastewater capacity to support them, so a water constraint is also a housing constraint that could affect region-wide growth targets.
Protecting Nature Protects Our Tap Water
Wetlands, forests, and untouched land aren’t just nice scenery. They’re what allows rain and snowmelt to actually reach the aquifers the region depends on.
If a recharge area is paved over, we’re not just losing green space but shrinking the water supply itself. That’s why groundwater recharge areas and wellhead protection zones matter so much in local planning decisions.
Protecting them means directly protecting our drinking water security.
Similarly, the Waterloo Moraine’s recharge areas overlap significantly with the farmland surrounding the region’s cities, the same land protected by the Countryside Line since 2009.
That overlap matters, because large-scale water-taking activities, like aggregate extraction or data centres, can draw millions of litres a day from the exact recharge zones that keep both farms and taps running.
Defending farmland from sprawl and defending drinking water security are the same fight, not separate battles.
Building Water-Smart Neighbourhoods in Waterloo Region
None of this means growth has to stop, just that we need to design and manage growth to protect our water access now and for the future.
Green infrastructure, such as permeable pavement, rain gardens, and urban tree cover, does double duty: it manages stormwater and reduces flooding, while also easing pressure on the piped systems that move water through the region.
Low-impact development options for local governments and developers to consider include:
- Treating rainwater where it falls and capturing it for gardens and non-potable uses; this option also decreases strain on storm sewers and drainage pipes during heavy storms, and reduces flooding, erosion, and property damage
- Designing new construction to harvest rainwater and reuse greywater for toilets, laundry, and irrigation (greywater is household wastewater from sinks, baths, etc. that does not include human waste)
- Making walkways, driveways, and roads permeable wherever possible (i.e. by using materials that allow rainwater and melting snow to pass through into the ground instead of being allowed to run off into storm sewers)
- Removing unnecessary pavement in favour of native plantings, pollinator gardens, and food-bearing trees
Ask Your Candidates
Would you support community water conservation and demand management strategies? What strategies would you advocate for?
Our Water Belongs to Us, Or Does It?
There’s a governance wrinkle worth knowing about heading into this election. Recent provincial legislation called the Waste and Wastewater Public Corporations Act, grants the Ontario government the power to remove local water and sewage management from municipalities and hand it to arms-length public corporations.
As noted in the article linked to above, this potential “financialization” of water “would erode the public health and social mandate of public water infrastructure, undermining the capacity of communities to cope with growing ecological and financial stresses.”
In addition, privatized utilities elsewhere have often meant higher rates passed on to residents, with local councils losing much of their say in the process.
Do you believe water belongs to local communities or to vaguely-defined “arms-length governance structures”? Whatever side of that debate you’re on, it’s worth knowing the question is live, and municipal candidates will have views on it worth asking about.
Ask Your Candidates
The Ontario government has recently passed legislation granting the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing the power to remove local water and sewage management from municipalities. Will you lobby the provincial government to keep water services public and locally-run?
What You Can Do
Some might think of water capacity as something that just happens, like rainfall or drought, but it’s most definitely not.
Whether the region grows responsibly, invests seriously in conservation, protects the Moraine from new large-scale water-taking, and fights to keep water services public and accountable—all of that comes down to who’s sitting at the council table after October 26.
The region has already adopted a growth-tied water allocation policy, giving each city and township a set amount of water for growth, reviewed every three months as capacity expands. That’s a start. Whether it’s enough, and whether it’s paired with real conservation and protection of recharge areas, is exactly the kind of decision voters get a say in this fall.
Voting day is October 26, 2026. Make sure you’re registered, know your candidates, and cast a ballot that reflects the region you want to live in.
Learn more: Read our Complete Voters Guide to the 2026 Waterloo Region Municipal Elections for all the details on where, when, and how to vote.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does Waterloo Region get its drinking water?
Roughly three-quarters comes from underground aquifers fed by the Waterloo Moraine, with the remaining quarter drawn from the Grand River.
Why did Waterloo Region limit development over water capacity?
In December 2025, the region identified that its largest water system had reached a capacity limit, which may restrict new housing and business development in some fast-growing areas until additional capacity is secured.
How is water connected to housing in Waterloo Region?
New developments require sufficient water and wastewater capacity before they can be approved, which means water constraints directly limit how much new housing can be built and where.
What is the Waterloo Moraine, and why does it matter?
The Waterloo Moraine is a glacial landform that filters and stores the groundwater supplying most of the region’s drinking water. Protecting its recharge areas from development and large-scale water-taking is essential to long-term water security.
Could Waterloo Region’s water system be privatized?
Provincial legislation now gives the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing the authority to move local water and sewage management to arms-length public corporations, a change that has raised concerns about local control and potential rate increases.
Who is VisionWR?
VisionWR is a group of volunteers united by a shared vision for caring, inclusive, and climate-safe communities. VisionWR aims to bring together people and organizations across Waterloo Region to collaborate around mobilizing for the October 2026 municipal and regional elections. Together, we work to engage candidates and voters around the vision for an inclusive and sustainable future of shared well-being for all.