The Nova Scotia environment department is looking for input from farmers on a new water resources management strategy for the province.
A discussion paper released Wednesday is meant to generate comment from Nova Scotians — 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 2007 and public consultation forums are expected to get underway this spring.
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The province has set June 1 as the deadline for responses to the discussion paper.
“Better management of the province’s water resources will contribute to the health of people, ecosystems, and the economy,” the department wrote in a release. “It will also assist industries, such as tourism and agriculture, and help the province prepare for floods and drought.”
For example, the discussion paper noted, 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..
The discussion paper doesn’t let farmers off the hook, however. 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.
