If you’re feeling weather weary these days you’re not alone. Most of the province probably shares your feelings.
It was only eight or nine months ago that we were worried the rain would never come again. Then came the winter that wouldn’t go away, where it only warmed up long enough to snow, only to plunge back down into the deep freeze. Now, after we’ve watched one ‘special weather statement’ after another pile up from Environment Canada, we’re wondering if the rain will ever stop.
Weather extremes are nothing new for this region. We have always regularly seen our temperatures fluctuate by 70 C in a given year. And we’re no strangers to drought or flood.
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But what does seem to be new is the volatility and rapid swings we’re now experiencing. The way things have been going, we could be back in drought conditions in just a few more weeks, and I doubt many of us would be surprised by that.
We’ve been warned for years that this sort of volatility is exactly what we could expect under the various climate change models. But a lot of us either rolled our eyes and said, ‘it’s just a model,’ or assumed that we were talking about long-term changes that would take many more decades to assert themselves.
But now, as our Alexis Stockford reports, some local water management experts are looking at recent history and coming to the conclusion that the future is now.
We’re currently living through that volatility, and it’s a new reality that Manitoba is going to have to take very seriously. We’re not quite in as dire straits as the low-lying island nations that could well disappear entirely under the waves if ocean levels rise. But we are the low-lying land at the end of a lot of waterways that run for many, many miles through other provinces and U.S. states.
The Winnipeg-based comedienne, Lara Rae, once told a joke about the naming of her home city. The word ‘Winnipeg’ means “muddy water” in Cree, she explained, and in conversation with Indigenous Peoples, the early settlers had got the wrong end of the stick.
“What they were really saying is, ‘You can’t build a town here, there’s too much Winnipeg!’” she quipped.
That’s a handy analogy that can be applied to much of southern Manitoba, as we’ve seen this spring, and is also a stark reminder of why everyone in this province needs to pay attention.
One thing is clear, this is a multi-faceted problem, and there’s not going to be one silver bullet solution. It’s going to mean working on the problem incrementally, and whittling it down to size so that we can live with the worst of it.
As Geralyn Wichers reports in our May 19 issue of the Co-operator, Manitoba is currently working to update its water management strategy. That’s a great start, and all Manitobans have a stake in its outcome.
When water arrives, it’s too late to start planning, the right time to do that was the year before. Or even many years before.
Duff’s Ditch, as the Winnipeg diversion is colloquially known, after Premier Duff Roblin, who championed its construction, is a good example of that.
While our neighbours to the south, in North Dakota, have scrambled to save their communities over the years, sometimes failing, Manitoba’s capital has remained high and dry.
And while the floodway expansion built by the Gary Doer government has never been truly tested yet, with a flood rivalling 1997, there’s little doubt that eventually we’ll be very glad that work has been completed.
And outside the Perimeter Highway, there’s also plenty of evidence that forward planning is the right approach.
After the ’97 flood major changes were made, including improving ring dikes around communities in the flood zone, requiring rural properties to be either raised or protected by a dike, and raising key highways in flood-prone locations.
So what will a plan for Manitoba look like? It’s impossible to say for sure, but a safe bet might be that it will be a combination of better maintaining and managing our existing infrastructure, and strategic investments in flood protection and water management.
One of the most promising areas is in creating small reservoirs and wetlands on marginal farmland.
Those deliver a lot of bang for their buck. They slow and hold flood water, giving existing flood protection some buffer. And when the taps eventually shut off, they can serve as a source for irrigation — something the province should probably consider an expansion strategy for, as our neighbours in Saskatchewan have.
But, as a caller reminded me earlier today, talking about a recent article I wrote that featured the Big Grass Marsh, the interests of local landowners should be a large part of the puzzle.
Manitoba faces a unique geographic and hydrological challenge, and it needs a Made-in-Manitoba solution to it.
