The University of Saskatchewan’s Global Water Futures program is organizing discussions with scientists and water management professionals to come up with recommendations for a new agency in Canada. Director, Dr. John Pomeroy explains that the new Canada Water Agency is being formed because there is an emerging water crisis, partly because of climate change, and partly because of human development.

A national agency would coordinate local and provincial responses and bring all the information under one hub, for a more comprehensive approach to forecasting floods. Dr. Pomeroy says Canada is the only G7 country without a national flood forecasting system.

He expects the agency would also strengthen coordination on lakes and rivers that cross borders, which will be needed with the possibility of super droughts in the future.

Dr. Pomeroy would also like to see more Indigenous involvement, because he says often their water sources are off reserve lands, where their Indigenous jurisdiction in source water protection isn’t recognized.

Water-related natural disasters such as floods and fires cost Canadians $28-billion between 2000 and 2017.