A new program being tested across the Prairies this year is designed to turn children into water watchdogs.
The water quality assessment program is a hands-on concept that teaches water monitoring skills and stewardship.
“There is a consensus among all of us that you cannot affect change unless you get a community involvement and that involvement has to include young children,” said Susan Lamb, managing director of the Partners for the Saskatchewan River Basin.
She said the best part of the program is that it doesn’t require teachers or leaders to have extensive knowledge in environmental science. Instead, it will use simple methods and tests.
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“Kids nowadays turn on a tap and it is there,” she said.
“They have no concept where it came from.”
Children tend to assume a more protective attitude toward their water supply if they learn to evaluate the health of a water area. Projects encourage children to visit their local lake or river and look at the water quality.
They can count insects around the water and measure the pH balance. They are challenged to think how much water is wasted when toilets are flushed and taps are allowed to drip.
Forty-one groups, including a Girl Guide unit, canoe clubs, school groups and camp instructors, are testing the watchdog program.
The full program should be available next spring.
The Partners for the Saskatchewan River Basin is an alliance of interest groups that promotes the protection of watersheds within the basin. The basin extends south from Edmonton and east across central Saskatchewan, and includes a corner of Manitoba that drains into Hudson’s Bay.
Lamb said these alliances of public groups to protect watersheds are relatively new organizations.
An example is the Oldman River Basin water quality initiative formed in 1997 in response to widespread concerns about water quality in the area. Many feared the large livestock feeding industry in the Lethbridge region was contaminating the basin.
Water quality tests revealed the problems stem from many sources.
“As our population and activities continue to grow, the intensification of human activity on our regional landscape poses increasing challenges,” said Ian Dyson of the Oldman River group.
The initiative has a wide ranging membership from industry, agriculture, government and the public. Its five-year mandate is to monitor and improve water quality within the basin. In its first year, the group established 39 water quality monitoring sites along the river and its tributaries to measure fecal coliform, bacteria, pesticides and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous.
“Looking at the data as a whole, we know the areas where we should be more concerned about certain activities,” Dyson said.
Some of worst sites were found near the city of Lethbridge during the first year data was collected. In 1999 the city upgraded its sewage treatment plant and substantially reduced water quality problems. At one point, 83 percent of the fecal coliform problems in the basin originated from the city. The new system has reduced the count to .01 percent.
Another problem is pesticides in the water, including chemicals like 2-4,D used on city lawns.
For further information regarding these watershed programs, visit www.saskriverbasin.ca.
