The association wants municipal and provincial drainage policies
Contentious drainage issues have prompted farmers to form the Saskatchewan Farm Stewardship Association.
It is calling for the provincial and municipal governments to develop an organized drainage system. It says farmers must be at the table when such policies are developed and should be willing to co-operate with others in the process.
The SFSA first met last fall in east-central Saskatchewan and is expanding across the province. Executive director Warren Kaeding said the association’s 85 members represent 300,000 cropped acres.
However, organizers would like as many members as possible to help develop policies that support farmers’ goals of economic development and sustainable land management.
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The last two years of flooding have added to an ongoing problem of unauthorized drainage by some farmers. Producers require permits to remove water from their land but not if they are redirecting it on their own property.
Kaeding said too many hard feelings have been created by people undertaking work without talking to their neighbours.
“What we’re hoping to accomplish is to open up channels of communication,” he said. “Nobody’s talking to one another.”
Under the province’s Conservation and Development Act, rural landowners can establish what’s known as C and D areas to develop water control works.
One successful example is in the Smith Creek Watershed near Kaeding’s home. Water control structures were controversial when installed but last year prevented flooding of the town of Langenburg, the railway and Highway 16. The RM of Churchbridge didn’t qualify for disaster assistance when others around it did because the water was better controlled, he added.
“Smith Creek was really designed over 40 years ago and had provincial government support in it,” Kaeding said. “That support went as far as them actually providing an engineer for it.”
