Canada and the US: A Tenuous Water Relationship

Water Misconceptions and the Relationship Between Canada and the United States in Terms of Water Governance

Brooks is a natural resource economist whose work explores the connections between environmental protection and the use of minerals, energy and water and whose research has focused on sustainable alternatives for conventional energy and water policies.

His water expert pedigree includes working with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at the University of Victoria and publishing studies on the role of fresh water and water-sharing agreements in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Brooks isn't shy with his take on the state of water affairs in Canada and abroad.

"The real need for water is not drinking water, or sanitation water, that's a relatively small term in water balance," he says. "The big use of water, something like 80 to 85 per cent, depending on where you are, is for growing food, which is to say, irrigation."

Brooks says Canada is unique, and quotes stats that say eight to 10 per cent of Canadian water goes to needless irrigation.

Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley, for example, is irrigated even though it receives around 2000 mm of rain a year. Why? So that farmers can guarantee "to deliver so many thousand tonnes of tomatoes on August 22nd. They have plenty of rain, but it might have to be Aug. 23 before they're ripe."

But the real Canadian water myth, according to Brooks?

"Probably the single most important point is that Canada is not as water-rich as most people think," he says. "The easiest way to say that is that Canada has roughly seven per cent of the world's land mass and seven per cent of the world's renewable fresh water. So we're roughly in a balance, seven per cent of the world's land mass and seven per cent of the world's supply of renewable fresh water."

He points out that 90% of Canadians live in southern Canada, while most of the country's water resources are in the north. This makes sharing resources with countries like the United States very difficult.

"The bulk of [Canadian] water flows northward to the Arctic Ocean, and ... there's no reasonable likelihood of turning it around and sending it back down south. It's an engineer's dream but a fool's errand. So the water that's flowing southward, there isn't a whole lot to export. And we're not using what we have very well. "

But in terms of our relationship with the increasingly thirsty U.S., Brooks cites the Canada-U.S. Boundary Waters Treaty, signed in 1909, as one of the best transboundary treaties between nations.

This fundamental water sharing agreement created the International Joint Commission (IJC), which has successfully evolved and adapted as circumstances and issues change.

"It's one of the most successful treaties, it's been around for more than 100 years and it continues to be adapted. It's a very good example."

But there's one key piece still to be dealt with, he says - one that should come as no surprise.

"What is still to be done is a lot more attention to ground water. Ground water also crosses borders, underlies borders and is much more difficult to deal with, probably because you can't see it. And knowing exactly where it flows, what'll happen if you put a well in Point A, what happens at Point C, and what if Point C is on the other side of the border?"

"The Great Lakes' whole drainage area, much of which is under the surface, is quite significant from the surface, and at present the IJC deals with it with difficulty because they have no guidelines, nothing that tells them what are the boundaries, what can they do from a legal point of view. … They have nothing to work within [when it comes to] the ground water that surrounds the Great Lakes."

Source: Yahoo News

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