Dates have been set for a series of public forums on a new water management strategy for Nova Scotia.
The province in recent weeks has published a discussion paper to spur comment from Nova Scotians — farmers, industries, municipal governments and environmental groups included — to build a strategy covering the province’s lakes, rivers, wetlands and aquifers, as well as management of waste water.
Recent provincial legislation commits the government to have a water resources strategy in place by 2010. Development work began in March last year and public consultation forums start next month.
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The province has set June 1 as the deadline for responses to its discussion paper on the topic.
Improved water management is expected to help industries such as tourism and agriculture and help the province prepare for floods and drought, the government has said.
For example, the discussion paper notes, farmers in the Annapolis Valley have already experienced water shortages in four of the six summers between 1996 and 2002, and it’s estimated the water needs in that area will increase by about 45 per cent in the next two decades.
Commercial, industrial and agricultural use combined are responsible for 25 per cent of the province’s water consumption, the discussion paper notes. Residential use takes up 59 per cent and the other 16 per cent is chalked up to “system leakage.”
That said, the discussion paper doesn’t let farmers off the hook. In a passage on the use of setbacks from waterways, it lists agriculture among land development activities that can “negatively affect aquatic ecosystems as well as the aesthetic and recreational enjoyment of lakes and streams.”
Such activities “can cause changes to the way water flows, increased erosion, siltation, or a buildup of contaminated sediments,” the paper said. Furthermore, “industries like forestry and farming often use pesticides and fertilizers, which can seep or run off into water systems, as can manure from livestock.”
Questions posed in the discussion paper include who should get priority access to water during droughts, where the money should come from to pay for a water management strategy to be implemented once it’s ready, and how to ensure the water needs of the province’s economy are met without compromising the province’s ability to provide water in the future.
