Water Quantity1. Allocation & Consumption2. Flooding

3. Drought

4. Water Use for Irrigation

5. Aquifer Depletion

6. Overdrawing Surface Waters

1. Allocation & Consumption

Breakdown of Saskatchewan’s Water use:

21% - Cities uses, drinking water and water used to carry away waste

What industry do you think is Saskatchewan’s largest water use?

67% - Agriculture use, irrigation and ranchers

6% - Industrial use, cooling and carrying away water from the industry

6% - Oil & Gas & Mining

It is the responsibility of the provincial government to allocate available, potable water to different sectors.

For example, towns are given a particular allocation of water to be taken out of an aquifer or lake or river.

For example, mining operations are also given an allocation.

What does the government have to make sure they do when allocating water to different

sectors?

Think Globally:

Do you think water consumption is increasing?

2. Flooding

Floods do occur naturally and they are often cyclical

- If there is high snow fall and it melts quickly in the spring

Flooding occurs when:

- High rain events

- High rain and spring melt

Normally soil has the capacity to absorb the precipitation and melt through percolation.

But if the soil is saturated, any new precipitation and melt water will simply run off the soil.

The natural process of flooding is made worse by:

Development!

Pavement increases the amount of runoff and the rate at which runoff

travels.

Storm sewers do their job of protecting buildings but they deliver water to water

bodies very rapidly.

3. Drought

Droughts also occur naturally and are part of the cyclical climate on the prairies.

What would droughts impact?

Of course, human activities make things worse!

The removal of wetlands increases drought impacts.

The vegetation creates shade and reduces wind speed, both of which reduce evapotranspiration.

4. Water Use for Irrigation

Globally, agricultural crop irrigation is the largest consumptive use of water. It accounts for about 70% of the world use of fresh water.

So why irrigate?

Food production requires large quantities of water; approximately 1000 tonnes of water are needed to produce one tonne of grain.In SK, most of the water used for agriculture comes from precipitation.

Irrigation is still needed in some places and is dependant on weather. Approximately 90,000 hectares are irrigated intensively in SK, about half around Lake Diefenbaker.

Irrigation

The Good The Bad

• Stabilizes agricultural

• Allows crop diversification

• Increases agricultural output

• Increases employment

• Logged soil water

• Increased soil salinity

• Groundwater contamination

• Affect water supplies elsewhere

5. Aquifer Depletion

An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials (gravel, sand, or silt) from which groundwater can be extracted using a water well.

As wells pump they draw water toward the well and create a zone of depression around the well where the depth of the water table in increased.

If the depletion is faster than recharge there can be a negative impact on other users of the aquifer.

6. Overdrawing Surface Waters

When water is withdrawn from surface water bodies at a rate greater than it is replaced through infiltration from groundwater, inflow from rivers and precipitation, the volume of water is decreased.

How could this impact people and other organisms?