As the province’s drought reaches historical levels, British Columbians are being urged to do their part to conserve water. The minister of emergency management and climate readiness, Bowinn Ma, has called on residents, farmers, businesspeople and industrial plant operators to take urgent steps to cut water use. She highlighted a report from B.C.’s River Forecast Centre that said the combination of record heat in May followed by early snow melt and persistently low levels of rain have created severe drought.