Quote:
Originally Posted by Festivus
If there are major issues with water supply in the next 20-50 years (which is likely), I doubt the provinces are going to respect these legal limits. Sask is already choosing to violate federal law re: carbon tax payments, etc. Alberta will certainly use more than their share from SK, and SK will certainly use more than its share from MB, etc. This exact thing is already happening in the southwestern US.
There's actually a great novel called The Water Knife that I'd recommend for people interested in future water shortages: The Water Knife. It deals with conflict between US states in the future as rivers and lakes slowly run dry. |
Major issues for sure in the future.
Calgary is on the Bow and Elbow rivers and continues to grow at a rapid pace. Lethbridge is on the Oldman river. The Bow and Oldman rivers form the South Saskatchewan river just west of Medicine Hat. The Red Deer river feeds into the S. Sk. river just inside the provincial border north east of Medicine Hat. There are already a lot of irrigation canals using the water from the Bow river. All of these cities and Alberta farmers/ranchers are using this water resource before the S. Sk. river flows into Lake Diefenbaker.
The number of people in Alberta that are dependent on this water supply is nearly double the entire population of Saskatchewan. If Alberta takes its 50% share, there is likely to be a major drop in the level of Lake Diefenbaker. Some studies predict a 5% to 10% drop.
The Saskatoon CMA is quickly approaching the 400,000 population level. There are a lot of people depending on an increasingly scarce resource essential for basic life.
In the not too distant future I predict that the value of the water will far exceed the value of oil and natural gas.
I am not against the proposed project but I will side with the experts rather than the politicians on this issue.
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