Are we being Hydro-illogical? This is our first article of the winter series.
Do you suffer from being “hydro-illogical”? Sadly most of us do. While this word is likely new to you it has been around for decades. It describes how people tend to forget about a drought after it rains…and then go back to behaving and using water as if there was no drought. That’s the hydro-illogical cycle.
When drought ends, or we get rain, people are often glad to resume business as usual. Although people should appreciate the moisture, we also need to stop and learn from the experience. Drought is a creeping disaster, and our Climate history predicts that drought will happen again just as it has done repeatedly before. What can we learn from this drought is that there will be a next one, we need to better prepare, and it could be worse due to climate change.
According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada the worst Saskatchewan drought was recorded back in 1961 when portions of the province received roughly 60% less precipitation than normal. This year’s drought is expected to cover a larger area than in 1961.
While drought affects everyone, it affects farmers immediately, ruining a crop or devastate animals in the blink of an eye. How we and our governments respond to drought (and other natural disasters for that matter) has become a topic of concern as governments continue to distribute increasing amounts of money to victims and sectors for drought relief. Despite governments spending $100’s of billions in aid for past droughts, studies have shown that drought disaster relief does little to reduce vulnerability for the next drought. It may even increase vulnerability because it encourages the status quo. In other words, vulnerability to drought is often the direct result of poor planning and poor resource management.
In a recent interview, Dr. John Pomeroy, Director of USask Centre for Hydrology and Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change pointed out that farmers haven’t help themselves by draining wetlands across the province. “It’s reduced the holding capacity
of a river basin and the landscape,” Pomeroy said of the common practice.
“Also, that water carries nutrients, fertilizer and phosphorus, which feeds
algae blooms and causes our lakes to go green. Sloughs, ponds and
wetlands are the areas where groundwater is recharged. We’ve actually
inadvertently cut off the recharge of groundwater in many areas”.
Unfortunately, what seems like a simple water management technique to
farmers and governments, not only causes problems downstream, but
makes problems worse during drought.
Dr. Pomeroy also said he believes that Saskatchewan’s Water Security Agency (WSA) has approved every drainage permit. Not surprising given a recent Audit of WSA by the Provincial Auditor who found that WSA is not adequately assessing the risks when approving wetland drainage and is not actively searching for illegal drainage activity. According to WSA’s 2020 annual report, over the last 3 years the agency has licensed drainage for an area 13x the city of Regina without protecting 1 acre of wetland.
Despite being possibly one of the worst droughts on record, track hoes and bulldozers are once again out on the landscape this fall draining and cultivating more wetlands to farm more acres, and WSA continues
to promote and develop thousands of more drainage projects. We couldn’t be more hydro-illogical. By destroying wetlands, we destroy the very things that fight climate change by storing carbon, act like mini air-conditioners on the landscape moderating temperatures, and store water during times of drought and slowly release it during floods. Draining wetlands also sends more nutrients into our lakes increasing algae blooms, causes flooding, and destroys precious wildlife habitat. Despite all these benefits an estimated 29,000 acres of wetlands are drained annually in Saskatchewan and most without a license even though one is required by law.
The challenge is to move away from simply responding to crises with aid and instead develop a more proactive resource management approach that identifies risk and
targets programs such as wetland protection and restoration to
reduce that risk. Building resilience lessens the need for costly
crisis-oriented government interventions. We need to conserve
wetlands rather than pay billions of dollars for drought aid. We need
to put programs and incentives in place to make it worthwhile for
farmers to retain those wetlands and safeguard the benefits they
provide our watersheds. We need governments promoting wetland
protection policies not drainage policies. Sadly, Saskatchewan is still the only Province without a Wetland Protection Policy and WSA continues to develop drainage projects in the face of drought and climate change. We are being “hydro-illogical”.
For more information about wetlands and watershed stewardship, and the Lower Qu’Appelle Watershed Stewards visit: https://www.lqws.ca