Funding is being made available to help rural municipalities deal with water-related issues. (Nigel Maxwell/paNOW Staff)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

Dealing with water

Water security agency announces infrastructure spending

May 28, 2020 | 3:27 PM

Two area rural municipalities are welcoming a funding announcement from the provincial water security agency.

On Thursday afternoon it was announced over $8 million is being made available to help with water-related infrastructure and work across the province. This includes $600,000 to maintain natural water channels and $500,000 to conduct flood mapping and long term mitigation work.

Eric Schmalz, reeve for the R.M. of Prince Albert, said they are determining if they are eligible for funding. He added they always appreciate when other levels of government make additional funding available.

“Particularly where there’s residents we want to make sure the proper and natural flow of water is maintained,” he said.

Schmalz said making sure to protect agricultural land is also an important priority for them.

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Ryan Scragg, reeve for the R.M. of Garden River, said being located in this part of the province means his R.M. has to deal with water-related issues more often than municipalities further south. Right now land owners in the area are dealing with flooded land after recent rainfall.

He explained having funds available to help pay for planning work like flood mapping is important for them in the long run.

“Flood mapping is critical to designing infrastructure and making sure we as an R.M. can target and plan for where the water is, where it’s going and where the danger zones might be,” he said.

Scragg said the municipality is regularly dealing with issues like beaver dams or other obstructions on their waterways. He explained dealing with something like a single blockage is not usually much of an issue.

However, there have been cases where they’ve had blockages on large river systems, which requires them to bring in outside contractors.

“You might have 30 beaver dams in a mile stretch. That’s where it gets expensive,” he said.

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MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn