CBC News - Droughts and Water Shortages Across Canada
Historic drought and low water supply levels are impacting communities all across Canada. In this week’s ‘Water Issues’ post we’re highlighting three recent articles published by the CBC that review these impacts on communities in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Quebec.
The Canada1Water project will provide a state-of-the-art modelling and data framework (with high-resolution climate projection data) to help communities across Canada (big or small and in remote regions) to address these uncertain water supply issues. All associated data will be published as open-source datasets, lowering the barrier to entry for further high-resolution integrated hydrologic modelling and providing decision support information to help guide agriculture, forestry, industry, and rural community water resource planning to the end of this century.
Producers experiencing water shortages in southwest Sask.
“The rains were completely inadequate over this summer and snow pack didn’t develop to any great degree in the winters.”
Pomeroy said there is not enough water in dugouts for cattle, but that melting of snow packs can alleviate that drought. “It would have to be above-normal snow packs followed by substantial spring rains to rebuild the deep soil moisture and groundwater reserves,”
In Saskatchewan, farmers are still feeling the pressure of ongoing drought, making it necessary for them to bring in their livestock early and missing out on the usual fall grazing. Water tables are dropping, causing shallow water supply wells to dry up, and necessitating the drilling of deeper and deeper wells (>1,500 feet in some areas).
Long-term drought is difficult to recover from, requiring periods of extended rainfall and heavy snows in the winters. But unfortunately, the warming climate in this region is forecasted to result in less snow in the winters, and more rain in the summers. However, increased rainfall associated with climate change in many areas tend to be associated with fewer and larger rainfall events, which are not conducive to groundwater recharge. When you have a heavy rainfall following prolonged drought you will tend to see more water running off into rivers and streams, rather than seeping into the ground. Furthermore, John Pomeroy explains that "[i]n southwest Saskatchewan, we'll see more winter rains than snow, and longer summers meaning more evaporation from soil and crops."
Ongoing drought in British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast regional district is resulting in historically low water levels, threatening local water supply for a number of communities.
The region has been under Stage 4 water restrictions since the end of August, with no rain in the forecast to relieve the pressure on water resources. Stage 4 water restrictions bans the outdoor use of supplied drinking water for watering gardens, construction and property maintenance. The focus of the water restrictions currently are to maintain critical water supply for hospitals and firefighting, and to maintain baseflow for salmon habitat.
“It’s really dried up. Our lakes that we’re drawing water from are at a level that we haven’t seen before. If we’re not taking actions in the short term, given the ongoing warm weather and the lack of rain in the forecast, we might otherwise be in a very dire situation several weeks from now.”
“With the increasingly dry summers, the wells that had not yet dried up are emptying. More people have to buy bottled water or have it delivered.”
Meanwhile, in the small Quebec community of Saint-Georges-de-Clarenceville, one hour South of Montreal, increasingly dry summers and heavy agricultural withdrawal of groundwater are causing a two-fold problem: wells are drying up, and the wells that still supply water are becoming increasingly contaminated with E. Coli. Earlier this summer, over 75% of tested wells were contaminated, and the town no longer has safe drinking water.