Water: it’s essential, irreplaceable.
Water unceasingly recycles through the biosphere, from oceans through evaporation into clouds, through rain and snow into rivers and glaciers, through plants and animals into the atmosphere and land, through runoff into seas and underground aquifers. Water provides continuity among all living things, and between generations.
In southern Saskatchewan, water is scarce. Yet demand is growing: for expanding irrigation, industrial use, and communities. As our climate warms, glaciers shrink, and evaporation increases.
Agricultural, industrial, and domestic contaminants threaten the qualityof our water. In the north, an uncontaminated water supply is at risk from mining and forestry.
How to meet expanding water needs? We face a decision: Do we re-plumb Prairie rivers and watersheds? Or do we rethink human activities and economies. Should we dam and divert rivers, drill and pump aquifers to meet the unquenchable water demands of a business-as-usual economy? Or should we rethink what it means to live and prosper in our often dry Prairie home; should we optimize our water use and shape our actions to respect natural limits? Do we transform our watershed ecosystems? Or do we transform ourselves?
SES is working to educate citizens and policy makers, working to help create water policies in Saskatchewan that respect ecological limits and that allow communities to thrive and prosper sustainably. We are askingtough questions about big dams and about the alternatives to the dam-and-divert agenda.
A key alternative to so-called “supply-side” fixes such as dams and diversions is water conservation. SES has recently published a 24-page booklet on residential water conservation. Please see the next section for more information and to download the booklet.
We’re working with the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority (SWA) and local Watershed Advisory Committees to move the province toward watershed-based planning, governance, and protection, and we’re working to make sure that watershed-based plans turn into tangible, effective protections and improvements in the quality of our watersheds, ecosystems, and drinking water quality.
Most Saskatchewan rivers begin on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, and continue on into Manitoba. What each province does with their water affects rivers and lakes downstream. In order to effectively manage our water resources, the three Prairie Provinces must work together.
SES is part of a prairie-wide initiative called the Prairie Water Directive. This document sets out clear objectives to policy makers.
Prairie Water Directive Executive Summary
Prairie Water Directive Full Directive 2009
To see more SES water publications, click here.
