Water system not enforced well enough
Re: “Report puts a number on Sask. lake flooding,”(WP, Oct. 3).
The occurrence of that flooding is disgusting. However, that has happened twice in the 1900s.
First time was towards the end of the First World War into the early 1920s. The second time period was the late 1940s into the 1950s. Both times the flooding was a 100 percent natural thing.
Over 40 years ago the provincial government of Saskatchewan set up a water removal (ditching) permit system. The last decade of Quill Lakes flooding was also weather caused. That cause was intensified by the farmland ditching, which has increased since the early 1970s.
A question that arises is how much of that ditching we permitted under Saskatchewan law. This last Quill Lakes flooding was far more intense than the two time periods in the 1900s.
Our family has farmed in the Quill Lakes area since 1903, and we have survived all three flooding periods. However, I can truly inform you that the last flooding episode has been far more harmful.
The politicians in this province set up a water-ditching permit system. For whatever reason, that permitted system is not governed. Therefore, why do our politicians exist?
If they set up the law, then they should enforce it. If not, then we do not require politicians.
Delwyn Jansen
Humboldt, Sask.
