Demand management primers

The Municipal Water Demand Management Primers describe practices that municipalities can implement to reduce the demand for water. A working group of municipal water managers developed the primers as part of the Grand River Watershed Water Management Plan.

Reducing water demand will help ensure sustainable water supplies in the future for communities, economies and the ecosystem. 

Please note the following documents may not be accessible to people with disabilities. If you have a disability and require a document in an alternate format, please contact us.

• Primer 1 - Introduction, Securing your municipal supply for the long-term (593KB PDF)
• Primer 2 - Easing the flow: getting past water demand management barriers (512KB PDF)
• Primer 3 - Community outreach (483KB PDF)
• Primer 4 - Water metering (708KB PDF)
• Primer 5 - Outdoor water use bylaw (619KB PDF)
• Primer 6 - Rebates and capacity buybacks (486KB PDF)
• Primer 7 - Water loss control (494KB PDF)
• Primer 8 - Conservation pricing (491 KB PDF)
• Primer 9 - New technologies and next generation water demand management strategies (628KB PDF)
• The Municipal Water Demand Management Matrix (25KB PDF) is a tool to evaluate the merits of each of the tools described in the primer series, based on municipal managers' experiences.
• Water Sustainability Planning - Key Resources for Municipalities (563KB PDF) provides links to current documents and websites identifying a wide range of tried and tested municipal water conservation best practices.