A fledgling organization will meet this fall to address flooding and water issues in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and North Dakota.
The Assiniboine River Basin Initiative, which is developing a plan for co-ordinated water management in the three jurisdictions, will hold its first conference in November.
Allan Preston, a farmer from Hamiota, Man., and former assistant deputy minister of agriculture in the province, is leading the group.
“The Assiniboine River Basin is seeing historical summer flood levels this year and its citizens are rising up to meet the challenge,” Preston, interim chair of the initiative, said in a release. “Our goal, through the work we are doing with the ARBI planning committee, is to bring together stakeholders across all three jurisdictions to develop an effective organization to work cooperatively in this area.”
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The Prairie Improvement Network (PIN), formerly the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council, launched the Assiniboine River Basin Initiative earlier this year.
The group held its first workshop this spring in Virden, Man. Approximately 130 representatives from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and North Dakota attended the meeting.
Wanda McFadyen, project manager for the initiative, said the severe flooding in eastern Saskatchewan and western Manitoba this year illustrates why such an organization is needed.
“As PIN and the ARBI Planning Committee entered in the second phase of the development of sustainable organization for the basin, we could not fathom the events that continue to unfold within the basin at this time,” she said. “This ongoing event has heightened awareness of the need of a basin-wide agency.”
The Assiniboine River Basin Initiative conference will be held in Regina Nov. 12-14.
For more information, go to prairienetwork.ca.
