Water is at the core of life on this planet.
Humankind obviously faces a myriad of series problems, from assault rifles in the hands of the deranged, to racial, religious and sexual intolerance which seems to be growing, to how to feed a growing world population, many without the means to grow, or buy food.
But in terms of possible threat to survival as a species, those issues and many others, take a back seat to the need to ensure we have a viable, renewable, supply of water.
Water is something that we need in so many aspects of our lives.
The need for safe drinking water should be rather obvious, although that is hardly ensured.
We might think unsafe water is a Third World issue, but it has hit much closer to home.
The situation which occurred in Flint, Michigan might be the most recent one to reference, but in Canada an E. coli contamination in Walkerton, ON in 2000, and a water crisis in North Battleford, SK., in 2001 are also poignant reminders that just because you have a tap to turn it is not an assurance of safe water.
We would like to think these previous situations were an effective ‘red flag’, which led to better safety controls and monitoring, but with the added influence of climate change, the likelihood of more water crises certainly exist.
The issue of water goes beyond potable sources though.
Agriculture is reliant on water to grow our food.
The source of agriculture water has generally been from rain, but of later that source has become much less reliable.
One of the obvious effects of climate change, or at least the phase of a pattern of weather we are currently in, is more extremes in all things. That has meant severe rains that have people canoeing city streets across the Canadian Prairies all too regularly.
The flip side is of course drought, a situation that led to a major sell-off of cattle in Texas in recent years and of course the threat to the overall water resource in California.
In some cases irrigation can offset short term situations in rainfall for farming, but without rain to recharge water reservoirs that is a limited time situation.
And of course industry needs water. Canola plants in Yorkton looked at the City’s water resource as part of their decision to establish here.
The chicken processor in Wynyard requires water.
And the list goes on.
That was why water was looked at as a key resource across a range of areas, including sport fishing, and recreation at the annual Saskatchewan Association of Watersheds Conference held in Yorkton earlier this year.
Not that it’s a new issue to be discussed even in Yorkton.
There have been concerns with flooding in the Yorkton region based on events such as the July 1, 2010 rains in the city, and the spring run-off of 2011.
But experience in The Netherlands, a country where much of it lies below sea level, shows you can deal with great amounts of water and still live as a community.
“About 60 per cent of our country is flood prone,” said George Peters, Project Director Advisory Group Design & Realization for River Deltas and Coasts, Royal Haskoning DHV in The Netherlands, speaking at a Prairie Flood Management and Mitigation Seminar in 2013. He added 10 million people live behind dikes.
In fact The Netherlands “international airport is about 500-feet below sea level,” he said.
So The Netherlands has to work with water.
“We had to find a way to live together with the water,” said Peters.
While this all means added attention to water safety, the key is what will ultimately be done?
Expect more and more legislation to control all aspects of water.
We have seen some of that already in terms of when, and if, farmers can ditch fields to deal with water.
More will come.
The farm sector is seen as a major contributor of nitrates finding their way into streams and rivers, and then lakes. Nitrates can lead to algae growing out of control, reducing water oxygen and ultimately killing off most life.
Farmers obviously need to be self-diligent to reduce the problem, but government will likely move to legislate controls sooner than later.
It will be another level of control farmers will lose, but when talking about a resource as vital as water it will be hard to argue against since so far the problems do not seem to be going away on their own.
Calvin Daniels is Assistant Editor with Yorkton This Week.
