A new centre for fresh water research has been granted $7.5 million over five years to address the vulnerability of Alberta’s water supply.
The centre is a collaboration among water research scientists at the University of Alberta, University of Calgary and the University of Lethbridge. It is expected to focus on studies related to the health of fresh water systems.
The grant came from Alberta Ingenuity, established in 2000 with a $500 million endowment from the province’s Heritage Trust Fund to support scientific research.
The University of Lethbridge is the administrative centre, where a regional water institute is already operating.
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Water sufficiency for the future is high on the list of priorities, said Stewart Rood, an environmental scientist from Lethbridge.
“The pressures that Medicine Hat currently faces, Red Deer may face in the future,” he said.
Accelerating population and industrial growth are placing more demand on a shrinking water supply.
The centre will also encourage research into the relationships between water quality and quantity in the areas of watersheds, water ecology and safe water and handling waste water. The research can ultimately be used to form water policy and grant money can be used to train water management experts.
“We hope to provide the next generation of well qualified graduates that would be able to meet these needs,” Rood said.
Water research is appropriate in Alberta because it is one of the few areas of the world that have untouched watersheds and rivers, allowing scientists to learn how they operate in a natural setting.
“We are able to see the natural processes of these,” Rood said.
“Globally speaking, that is rare.”
