Are we running out of water?
In some respects, a lot has changed since the magazine was originally published thirty years ago – no more cigarette ads featuring spritely young Bavarian couples enjoying an alpine puff in celebration of a successful hike, and our desire to be the proud owners of limited edition finely crafted Charles Dickens themed utensil sets seems also to have subsided.
But what about water – are we in fact running out of it? Generally speaking, the total amount of water on earth today – the sum of water contained in rivers, lakes, wetlands, aquifers, glaciers, oceans, clouds, etc – is largely the same as it was when dinosaurs were around. But questions of water availability need to be viewed through a local lens. In some parts of the world, water is in short supply – a situation often created and exacerbated by poor water management. A striking example of this is the Aral Sea in central Asia – previously one of the largest lakes in the world reduced to a fraction of its original size due to excessive withdrawals in upstream tributaries to irrigate cotton fields bound for export markets.
We don’t have to look half a world away to find examples of humans taking more water than can be given. The South Saskatchewan River – the lifeblood of the prairies and Canada’s agricultural economy – is a case in point. Since the early 20th century, flows in parts of the South Saskatchewan River during the summer have declined over 80%, and demand for water is projected to increase even further.
Maintaining a river’s seasonal pattern of high and low flows is also essential to the overall health of freshwater ecosystems. Humans have become very good at manipulating their environments – and without a doubt, controlling the natural flow of water is among its grandest feats. In 2000, there were 849 large dams and thousands more smaller dams in Canadian rivers and streams. In some rivers, such as the Saint John River in New Brunswick, the river flow is almost entirely regulated by dams.
Along with pollution, these pressures have taken a heavy toll on the world’s freshwater ecosystems. Globally, freshwater biodiversity has declined by 35% since 1970. In Canada, sturgeon and other iconic fish species are on the decline. From personal experience, I’ve seen changes in the lake where I spent my summers growing up. Frog and crayfish populations have dwindled, largemouth bass are now a rare sight, and within the past few years alone zebra mussels have completely taken over the lakebed.
Yet, for all that has changed in the past thirty years, so much remains the same. Our perspective on water management has not changed much. We still treat water primarily as an input into production or communities and have tended to neglect nature’s water needs. Yet, water for nature is water for people. When the environment receives the water it needs to be healthy and productive, it pays it forward by providing us with countless benefits that underpin our health and well-being.
The good news in all of this; there’s tremendous opportunity for positive change in the way Canadians interact with fresh water. At WWF-Canada, through our Living Rivers Campaign, we are working to find ways of harmonizing the water requirements of people with those of nature, to recognize the goods and services we often take for granted, and to translate both into water policy and management.
