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H2OPINION
The Politics
of Drainage
How misinformation, political clout,
and unchecked drainage threaten
Saskatchewan’s wetlands
BY TREVOR HERRIOT
Y THE TIME YOU READ THIS,
Saskatchewan will have elected a new
Government. Like all previous elections,
campaigning parties attempt to win
over voters with election promises. This
election, however, was different because for the
first time a party appealed to the voters using water
mismanagement.
Saskatchewan is pothole country, a landscape
dotted with 4.6 million acres of small wetlands. So,
it is no surprise that since the prairies were settled,
farmers have been draining wetlands to grow crops.
More than 40 million acres of land is under crop
production in Saskatchewan. According to the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency (WSA), farmers
have drained 50 per cent of the province’s wetlands
since settlement.
With incentives to drain and no enforcement of
regulations, illegal drainage is accelerating. The bed
and bank of every water body belongs to the people,
not the landowner, yet the destruction continues.
B
Trevor Herriot is Co-chair of Public
Pastures—Public Interest and board
member of Wetlands for Tomorrow.
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WATER C AN ADA • NOV EMBER/ DECEMBER 2024
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
