The Gardiner Dam (Government of Saskatchewan)

By Michael Joel-Hansen

World Water Day

Saskatchewan groups mark World Water Day

Mar 23, 2019 | 2:02 PM

Friday marked World Water Day. The day, which is recognized by the United Nations aims to raise awareness about the importance of safe drinking water and encourages sustainable development.

Some groups in Saskatchewan marked the occasion, one of those groups being water security agency. Patrick Boyle a spokesperson with the agency spoke to paNOW about the importance of recognizing the occasion.

“From our perspective, it’s something that is very important to the agency and to the rest of the government and to each and every person in this province,” he said.

Boyle explained a large amount of the time people tend to take having access to safe drinking water, especially considering in many parts of the world people are not as fortunate. Boyle said Saskatchewan is especially blessed in regards to the amount of water there is in the province.

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“It’s really important we thought from our perspective to recognize this,” he said.

Along with recognizing the importance of safe drinking water, Boyle added people should also remember the importance of the physical infrastructure, like Gardiner Dam, which plays a vital role in making sure the province has water.

“Those decisions and that infrastructure was built back then [1950-60s] and we still maintain that today and it’s one of the most important pieces of infrastructure for water management,” he said.

Environmental groups as well got in on the day, one of those groups being Ducks Unlimted. Scott Stephens, Director of Regional Operations for the Prairies, said certain habitats play an important role in ensuring a clean water supply.

“Wetlands are really important in sort of filtering our water and cleaning the water as it runs off the landscape,” he said.

Stephens added plants which are found in wetlands remove many nutrients from the water, which helps the plants grow and makes the water easier to treat.

“We like to say the wetlands really function as the kidneys of the watershed,” he said.

Besides helping to provide drinking water, Stephens added wetlands play an important role in water management as they can expand to absorb more water during extreme weather periods.

“That’s one of the other benefits the wetlands provide, they’ll sort of expand in size, but they’ll store some of that water and release it slowly,” he said.

MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @mjhskcdn