Mar 27, 2024
Saskatchewan’s plan for a multi-billion-dollar irrigation system proceeds while climate change hinders the critical watershed it needs.
In early December, the town of Leader, a community of nearly 900 near the Alberta border, declared a state of emergency.
The level of the river where the town gets its water had fallen to such a low level that its intake could no longer sustain the community’s vital supply. The state of emergency was lifted five days later, but Leader Mayor Aaron Wenzel called the issue “an ongoing concern” in a news release.
Two months earlier, the village of Cumberland House, a mostly Indigenous community located in a remote spot near the Manitoba border, had also declared a state of emergency because only four weeks worth of water remained in its reservoir.
The common denominator for both communities is the South Saskatchewan River, which joins with its northern tributary to become the Saskatchewan River before it reaches Cumberland House.