With the snow-capped Rockies spawning countless streÃ¥ams that feed down to the plains below, you’d think water worries would be the last thing on Albertans’ minds. But the quantity and quality of water has become a major issue for Canada’s fastest growing province.
Worried that unrestricted growth will collide with a shrinking resource, government has stopped issuing water allocation licences in the southern half of the province and new developments outside cities with existing allocation are turning to a new water market to buy their needs.
As the Western Producer’s Calgary-based reporter Barbara Duckworth reports, irrigation farmers who have the lion’s share of water rights are the key to continued development.
