Kamloops Water Restrictions 2026

Kamloops moved to Drought Level 4 on July 20, 2026, two days after declaring it. Level 4 is the second-highest step on the city’s five-level plan, and it cuts lawn watering — by sprinkler or by hand — to one day per week.

This is the first time Kamloops has tightened its water rules since it adopted year-round restrictions in 2024, which is itself the more important fact about this city. Kamloops does not switch restrictions on for the summer and off for the winter. It runs a permanent water use bylaw, and Drought Level 4 is layered on top of a baseline that never goes away.

Watering schedule and allowed days

Under Drought Level 4, lawn watering drops to one day per week, and the limit applies to hand watering as well as sprinklers — an unusually strict provision, since most jurisdictions leave hand watering unrestricted at every stage. In Kamloops at Level 4, standing on the lawn with a hose on the wrong day is a violation.

Your assigned day depends on your address. Check the City’s current schedule, and check it now rather than relying on last year’s: this restriction is two days old at the time of writing, and the schedule most residents have memorised is the year-round one, not the Level 4 one.

The year-round bylaw underneath continues to apply. That baseline is the reason Kamloops had somewhere to escalate to — a city already watering conservatively in June has more room to cut in July than one that has been unrestricted all season.

Why Level 4, and why now

The trigger was the Province’s drought classification for the South Thompson River, which sits at Drought Level 4 on the provincial scale, where Level 5 is the maximum. British Columbia rates each basin from 0 to 5, and the City of Kamloops aligns its own response to the provincial rating for the river it depends on.

The underlying number is the snowpack. The South Thompson watershed finished the 2026 season at 55% of normal — barely half. A snowpack that small does not sustain river flows through a hot, dry summer, and “extreme” drought has emerged across the Thompson-Okanagan region.

The stated purposes of the restriction go beyond drinking water supply. The City has framed Level 4 as protecting the community’s water supply, supporting the health of local waterways and fish habitat, and keeping water available for essential needs. That middle purpose is worth noting: in a Level 4 basin, water left in the river is doing ecological work, and a lawn is competing with a salmon run rather than merely with a reservoir.

Where Kamloops’ water comes from

Kamloops sits at the confluence of the North and South Thompson Rivers — the name itself comes from the Secwepemc word Tk’əmlúps, meaning “where the rivers meet” — and draws its municipal supply from the South Thompson.

Drawing directly from a river rather than from a large lake or reservoir is what makes Kamloops so responsive to snowpack. There is no substantial buffer between a poor snow year and a supply problem: river flow in July is last winter’s snow, and when that snow was 55% of normal, the shortfall arrives on schedule. A city on a large lake can draw down storage for a season; a city on a river cannot.

Kamloops is also genuinely dry — roughly 280 mm of precipitation a year, one of the lowest totals of any city in Canada, in a semi-arid grassland valley where summer temperatures regularly exceed 35 °C. The year-round bylaw exists because this is not a wet place having a bad year.

Strata and condo owners in British Columbia

Under British Columbia’s Strata Property Act, a strata corporation cannot enforce a bylaw that conflicts with an active municipal water restriction, and generally cannot penalise an owner for a lawn left dormant in order to comply while restrictions are in force. Strata disputes in British Columbia are handled by the Civil Resolution Tribunal.

Kamloops adds a wrinkle other B.C. cities do not. Because Level 4 restricts hand watering as well as sprinklers, a strata cannot fall back on “water it by hand, then” as a way of maintaining a landscaping standard — that instruction would itself direct owners into a violation on six days out of seven.

Strata councils with common-property irrigation should confirm in writing that the controller has been reset to the Level 4 single day, not merely to the year-round baseline schedule. The change is recent enough that many contractors will not yet have made it.

General information only, not legal advice. Strata and condo disputes are handled by the Civil Resolution Tribunal.

What Level 5 would mean

Level 4 is not the top of the Kamloops scale, and given a 55% snowpack and continuing hot, dry weather it is worth knowing that the city retains a further step. Level 5 is the maximum on the five-point plan and represents the most severe response available, applied when supply or ecological conditions deteriorate beyond what Level 4 addresses.

For residents, the practical planning assumption for the rest of this summer should be that Level 4 persists rather than eases. Restrictions in a river-fed system do not relax because of a single rainfall — they relax when flows recover, and flows recover with next winter’s snow.

Living with permanent restrictions

Kamloops is one of relatively few Canadian cities to have adopted year-round water restrictions, in 2024, and the significance of that decision is easy to miss. Most municipalities treat restrictions as an emergency instrument: switched on in a bad summer, switched off when the rain returns, and framed as a temporary imposition.

A permanent bylaw makes a different claim — that the baseline itself was unsustainable. It changes the default rather than managing the exception, and it means residents build habits and irrigation systems around the constraint instead of scrambling each time a stage is declared.

It also has a practical benefit that showed up this July. When the province rated the South Thompson at drought Level 4, Kamloops was escalating from an already-conservative baseline rather than from unrestricted use. A city that has been watering carefully all season has genuine room to cut; a city that has been watering freely has to impose a much larger behavioural shock to achieve the same volume saving.

Gardening in a semi-arid grassland

Kamloops receives roughly 280 mm of precipitation a year, among the lowest totals of any Canadian city, in a landscape of open bunchgrass hillsides and ponderosa pine. Summer temperatures regularly exceed 35 °C. The surrounding grassland is one of Canada's most endangered ecosystems, and it is also a fairly precise instruction manual for what will grow here without irrigation.

Bluebunch wheatgrass and rough fescue give the silver-gold movement that defines the local hillsides. Big sagebrush and rabbitbrush provide evergreen structure. Saskatoon, mock orange and Oregon grape work as shrubs. Ponderosa pine, if you have the room, is the defining tree of the valley and needs nothing once established.

With lawn watering restricted to one day a week under Level 4 — and that limit applying to hand watering too — a conventional turf lawn is effectively unmaintainable in a Kamloops July. That is worth treating as information rather than as a problem. The realistic choices are to accept dormancy, which grasses handle better than people expect, or to reduce lawn area in favour of planting adapted to the place.

Whatever you plant, mulch to 7–10 cm. In this climate mulch is not decorative; it is what stands between the root zone and a soil surface that can exceed 50 °C on a July afternoon.

Rivers, fish and why the restriction is not only about taps

The City has been explicit that Drought Level 4 is intended to protect local waterways and fish habitat alongside the drinking water supply, and that framing deserves attention because it is unusual.

The Thompson system is a major salmon-bearing watershed, and the South Thompson in particular is part of the migration route for runs that have faced severe pressure in recent years. Low summer flows in a drought year raise water temperatures and reduce habitat at exactly the point in the season when migrating fish are most vulnerable — warm water holds less dissolved oxygen, and a river running low and hot is a genuine barrier.

Municipal withdrawal is one component among many affecting flow, and no household's lawn decides the fate of a salmon run. But it changes what the restriction is for. When Kamloops asks you to cut lawn watering to one day a week, part of the water you leave in the system is doing ecological work downstream, and that is a different proposition from simply keeping a reservoir topped up.

Reading British Columbia's drought scale

Kamloops aligns its municipal response to the Province's drought rating for the South Thompson, so understanding that scale tells you what the City is likely to do next.

British Columbia rates each of its water basins from Level 0 to Level 5, and the scale describes the likelihood of adverse impacts to communities and ecosystems rather than rainfall alone. Levels 0 to 2 span normal to dry conditions where voluntary conservation is the usual ask. Level 3 signals that adverse impacts are possible. Level 4 means adverse impacts are likely, and Level 5 means they are almost certain — at which point the Province can, and has, temporarily suspended water licences to protect stream flows.

The South Thompson is at Level 4. That places it one step from the maximum, and it is the direct reason Kamloops declared Drought Level 4 under its own five-point plan on July 17 with effect from July 20.

The useful thing about this alignment is that it makes the City's next move legible. If the Province moves the South Thompson to Level 5, a further municipal tightening becomes very likely. Provincial basin ratings are published through the B.C. Drought Information Portal and updated through the season, and they are a better leading indicator of what Kamloops will do than any weather forecast.

Common questions about Kamloops water restrictions

How often can I water my lawn in Kamloops right now?

Once a week, under Drought Level 4, which took effect July 20, 2026. The limit applies to hand watering as well as sprinklers.

Does the one-day limit really include hand watering?

Yes. This is unusual — most jurisdictions leave hand watering unrestricted — but under Kamloops’ Level 4 restrictions, lawn watering by sprinkler or by hand is reduced to one day a week.

What is Drought Level 4?

The second-highest step on the City of Kamloops’ five-level plan, adopted in response to the Province rating the South Thompson River at drought Level 4 out of 5.

Does Kamloops have restrictions in winter too?

Yes. Kamloops adopted year-round water restrictions in 2024. Drought Level 4 is layered on top of that permanent baseline — it is the first escalation since the year-round rules began.

Why is the snowpack such a big deal here?

Kamloops draws directly from the South Thompson River rather than from a large storage reservoir, so summer flows are essentially last winter’s snowmelt. The South Thompson snowpack finished 2026 at 55% of normal.

Is this about fish as well as drinking water?

Yes. The City has stated that Level 4 is intended to protect the drinking water supply, support the health of local waterways and fish habitat, and keep water available for essential needs.

Can my strata fine me for a brown lawn?

Generally no. A strata bylaw that conflicts with an active restriction is difficult to enforce: section 121 of the Strata Property Act provides that a bylaw is not enforceable to the extent that it contravenes another enactment or law. A council also cannot direct you to hand water instead, since hand watering is restricted to the same single day. This is general information, not legal advice; strata and condo disputes are handled by the Civil Resolution Tribunal.

How dry is Kamloops normally?

Roughly 280 mm of precipitation a year — among the lowest of any Canadian city — in a semi-arid grassland valley where summer temperatures regularly exceed 35 °C.