The first of nine storm pond projects in Saskatoon has proven its effectiveness. Mayor Charlie Clark explains that some residents in the Haultain and Queen Elizabeth neighbourhoods have had flooding in their basements several times since around 2005, because the storm water from a large section of the East side of the city ends up there during intense rains.

Part of a sports field at W.W. Ashley District Park was made into a storm pond and then on June 20th, there was an intense rain where the water ended in the pond instead of in residents’ basements. Clark says when the neighbourhood was designed in the 1960s, they didn’t see these kinds of storms.

The federal government contributed $21.6-million from its Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund for the City’s $54-million Flood Control Strategy. The second storm pond project is underway in Churchill Park in the Adelaide Churchill neighbourhood and work on the third in Weaver Park in the Queen Elizabeth neighbourhood begins next year. Six more will be dug between 2024 and 2027.