The task of understanding the almost inexhaustible list of issues related to one of the world’s most valuable commodities might seem like a nearly impossible mission.
But for world-renowned researcher Howard Wheater, understanding water is an occupation that the world can ill afford to ignore.
With limited availability and ever-increasing demands from industry, agriculture and a rapidly growing global population, water is quite literally the key to human survival.
“Water means many things to many people, but it is fundamental to most aspects of our lives,” said Wheater, Canada excellence research chair in water security and director of the recently established Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan.
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“The world is facing a lot of complex issues related to water..… We’ve come to the end of the line in expanding our resources and now we have to start using them more wisely and more sustainably.”
As one of the world’s most respected water experts, Wheater’s arrival in Saskatchewan was viewed by many Canadian water researchers as a major step forward.
Wheater, who studied for more than 30 years in the United Kingdom, was attracted to Western Canada through the Canada Excellence Research Chairs program (CERC), which offers world-class scientists an opportunity to develop ambitious research projects at Canadian universities.
Wheater developed a proposal along with the U of S to establish a global institute that would study a wide range of issues related to water management and security.
CER approved the proposal, and Wheater arrived in Saskatoon in 2010 armed with $30 million in funding and an ambitious research agenda.
Now two years along, the institute has an impressive list of members and partners and is supporting water-related research under broadly defined themes that include climate change, land and water management, sustainable resource development, water and human health, and socio-hydrology, which looks at the relationship between society, social values and global water resources.
“Two years ago, there was one of me,” Wheater said.
“Now we have an institute with about 70 or 80 members … (including) faculty or senior government scientists. We also have a student membership of around 60, we’re supporting about 50 researchers across the university and (we’re) working closely with our various partners.”
The institute’s purpose, simply stated, is to study water issues from an integrated and holistic perspective and develop tools that will allow the world to manage water resources more effectively.
Wheater acknowledges that the institute has an ambitious and far-reaching research agenda.
In Western Canada alone, it is conducting studies at numerous sites, ranging from the high reaches of the Rocky Mountains to the expansive Saskatchewan River Delta in northeastern Saskatchewan and northern Manitoba.
Much of the institute’s research is focused on the Saskatchewan River Basin, which winds its way through the Canadian Prairies and serves the social, agricultural and industrial needs of one of Canada’s most rapidly developing regions.
The basin will act as a large-scale laboratory in which numerous water-related projects are conducted.
“When it comes to water, there are lots of issues being played out around the world, but interestingly, they are pretty much all represented here in Western Canada,” Wheater said.
“It’s a very exciting environment and there’s certainly plenty of issues for us to work on.”
One notable component of the institute’s research is a multi-year study of water quality in Saskatchewan’s Lake Diefenbaker.
Lake Diefenbaker provides sustenance for the vast majority of the province’s population, but it is facing increasing pressures from upstream and downstream users.
With one year’s worth of data in hand, the institute’s interdisciplinary research team has already made startling discoveries about the amount of nutrients flowing into the reservoir and the quality of water flowing out.
Phosphorus levels in the lake are elevated and algal blooms were observed on some parts of the lake in 2011.
Based on preliminary research, scientists believe that 90 percent of the phosphorus that flows into the lake each year is retained.
Upstream from the reservoir, some parts of the South Saskatchewan River already have phosphorus loads 10 times higher than what scientists would expect to find in a healthy ecosystem.
Nutrient levels in Lake Diefenbaker originate from a variety of sources including urban waste water, upstream agriculture and the natural environment.
One of the institute’s priorities is to understand how much these sources contribute to total nutrient loads and how they can be managed more effectively.
The situation in Lake Winnipeg provides a poignant example of how extreme nutrient loads can affect water quality.
Water availability is another pressing issue, and one that will become only more evident as climate patterns continue to change.
“The South Saskatchewan River is … the lifeblood of (many) prairie cities and it’s also fully allocated in southern Alberta,” Wheater said.
“There is no more water (available for Alberta users), yet Alberta is one of the most rapidly developing provinces in Canada.”
The ever-increasing demands of the oil and gas industry are placing unprecedented pressure on the West’s limited water resources.
Agriculture is also expanding, and global demand for Canadian food exports shows no signs of slowing.
In a nutshell, Canada will be forced to make critical decisions about how it intends to allocate its scarce water resources.
“In Saskatchewan, people are asking questions about water futures: what’s the opportunity and potential for expanding irrigation and if we do, does that mean that we can’t develop new potash mines in the future?” Wheater said.
“In other words, how do we balance these very different but equally important competing interests?”
He said agricultural producers will play an increasingly important role in managing water resources and ensuring that water quality is maintained at an acceptable level.
In many cases, farmers and the agriculture industry have done a commendable job in adopting new management practices that use water more wisely.
But in other cases, agricultural practices could be improved.
For example, the use of inorganic fertilizers has a largely undetermined effect on water quality, as does intensive livestock production, wetland drainage and the widespread use of agricultural chemicals.
Wheater said farmers and landowners should be recognized not only as producers of crops and livestock but also as providers of environmental goods and services that benefit the entire population.
“One of the things that we’re very interested in is the role of agriculture in helping to manage the environment,” he said.
“A lot of work has already been done on beneficial management practices, but the issues involved are very complex and as a result, there have been very few definitive conclusions about what can be achieved.”
Support will eventually grow for policies and incentives that promote environmental stewardship and responsible water use among agricultural producers.
However, Wheater said effective policies must be backed by relevant and dependable research.
“There’s a lot of food for thought for developing policies for the future, but one of the critical parts, though, is trying to get the science right to make informed decisions.”
