Saskatchewan irrigation districts will receive $4.5 million in federal and provincial funding to expand irrigation within their existing boundaries.
Saskatchewan Irrigation Projects Association president Roger Pederson said the funding, announced last week, is earmarked for infill projects.
The money will cover 90 percent of eligible costs, which include buying and installing pumps, turn outs, power lines, pipelines, drains and consulting services.
A maximum of $1.5 million will be available per district.
The deadline to complete projects is March 31, 2013.
Pederson said the money is welcome.
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Funding worth $6.2 million announced a couple of years ago to expand irrigation in the Luck Lake, Riverhurst and South Saskatchewan River districts has been used up. Most of that money was used to bury pipelines.
Pederson said the new dollars are not a large amount but they will increase irrigated acres.
“For existing districts, it’s maybe a change of a surface lateral (an open ditch) into a pipeline,” he said. “It could be the extension of a line, or a pump site.
“Certainly, it will add several thousand acres in some districts.”
Many districts have expansion plans in place, but money is always an issue.
In its throne speech last fall, the provincial government announced a $30 million 10-year program to restore the Lake Diefenbaker area irrigation system.
The M1 Canal, which is the main conveyance from the east side of the lake to the Broderick reservoir, needs repair.
“The M1 was built in the late ’60s and it was lined at one time,” Pederson said. “It needs to be replaced.”
More users, including the potash industry, rely on the canal and the method of moving water has to be more secure, he said.
The rehabilitation will add 45 to 50 percent more capacity.
Work on the canal can only be done when the water isn’t flowing. Plans are being finalized and work will start this September until freeze-up. It will progress in sections over several years.
Meanwhile, the two governments also announced improvements to the Farm and Ranch Water Infrastructure Program.
The program will now reimburse applicants for up to 50 percent of all eligible costs associated with developing multi-user pipelines, to a maximum of $15,000.
