Recently I had the pleasure of going to the Quill Lakes Watershed Association No. 14 public meeting in Naicam and what I heard was astonishing.
The association noted that water levels have already risen to all time highs, including a whooping 7 meters in the last 12 years, with no signs of slowing down.
Losses due to crops have already reached nearly $50 million and runoff this year has already exceeded the 30 year average between 1975 and 2004, due to the ground already being over saturated.
This information was very eye opening and quite truthfully a little scary.
This province relies on agriculture as one of its largest sources of revenue and we are slowly seeing an entire area of the province being swallowed up by water.
This is affecting a lot of farmers, which in turn affects the population as there is no local livestock or agriculture without a farm.
During the course of the meeting it was noted that some farmers are required to pay for land they are unable to use because it is flooded and if they do not pay for it they will lose their whole farm.
This is sad because they are essentially paying for a small lake, which results in lost profits, or worse, a lost farm.
I have a hard time understanding how these farmers are able to do this.
You hear all the time about climate change and while it holds some weight until you hear about parts of a province being drowned in water it is kind of hard to really fathom the impacts it is having.
The good news out of all the bad news is that the watershed authority is currently working on a solution that will at worst help slow down the flooding.
And thank goodness.
Over time we might see the water levels start to recede and hopefully get back to a point where it is at a manageable level, or better yet sitting only in the lakes and not on farmers’ land.
In the meantime, let us hope that the solution slows down the flooding.
And if Mother Nature is listening: please take it easy on us this year.
We could use some rain in the summer to keep the crops healthy, but please stop there keep all the extra rain to yourself.
