Tragically, as with so many issues relating to our environment, this is a day to remind ourselves of the threats to and recent attacks on this very critical natural resource.

“Canada has no national strategy to address very urgent water issues facing our society,” said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, MP Saanich-Gulf Islands. “Our Federal Water Policy is more than 20 years old and has never been implemented. We need to make use of its excellent guidelines immediately in order to deal with the impact of climate change, contamination, shortages, pressures to bulk export, and more.”

In May, 2012, a report by the Forum for Leadership on Water, a group of academic, NGO, and retired public-sector experts on water policy, stated that decades of policy and funding neglect had left Canada “crippled,” as it confronts growing threats to its water.

Since then, the situation has grown worse with the Conservatives’ aggressive promotion of the extraction industries, leading to the end of credible environmental assessments, the gutting of the Fisheries Act, and the virtual elimination of the Navigable Waters Protection Act – which leaves the great majority of our lakes and rivers vulnerable to development.

Even the Great Lakes are at risk. “The Great Lakes, which hold more than 95 percent of North America’s surface freshwater – 20 percent of the world’s – are continuously threatened by climate change pollution, over-extraction, invasive species, and wetland loss,” said Cathy MacLellan, Green Party Energy and Natural Resource Critic. “As the south and mid-western US continues to experience severe water shortages, the shared Great Lakes and Canada’s other fresh water resources are vulnerable to weak legislation concerning bulk water exports.”

Recent reports that Lake Erie is in trouble again, after having nearly died and then being revived in the 1970s, are disturbing. Earlier this year, Lake Winnipeg was given the title of Threatened Lake of 2013 – the most threatened lake in the world – by the Global Nature Fund (GNF). It is being poisoned by blue-green algae feeding off sewage and agricultural chemicals.

At the same time, small freshwater lakes are being used as toxic dumps. The Fisheries Minister has allowed certain lakes to be reclassified as ‘tailings impoundment areas. This absolves mining companies from having to build man-made containment ponds designed to protect natural water systems, and fish.

Our wetlands, too, are in danger. “Canada has about 25 percent of the world’s wetlands – lakes, rivers, swamps, wet grasslands, peatlands,” said Janice Harvey, Green Party Fisheries Critic. “Historically, we have played a key role internationally in protecting them. With the gutting of the Fisheries Act and the aggressive expansion of the Alberta tar sands this is no longer the case.”

“Our freshwater is in a fragile state for a variety of reasons, which might have been adequately dealt with before climate change,” said May. “Now, the fight to stop the rise in temperatures globally is crucial to saving this resource for future generations.”

The post UN World Water Day: Canada’s Water at Risk appeared first on Elizabeth May.

It is true that the Prime Minister has mentioned Lake Winnipeg. He has even announced $20 million for the clean-up of Lake Winnipeg. This was done in July on a trip to Manitoba when protesters had gathered to protest the closing of the Experimental Lakes Area — which was in the midst of researching what to do to save Lake Winnipeg. Those close to the issue tell me the money was largely re-profiled from other announcements, but at least, it is true that this is one environmental issue about which Stephen Harper seems acquainted.

I know that the Prime Minister is more powerful than any previous Prime Minister, but, no matter how revered by his caucus, speaking the words does not speak them into reality.

Lake Winnipeg is a long way from cleaned up – and almost as shocking as Ms. Rempel’s talking points was the fact that jaws didn’t drop on all sides of the House. I realized that Parliament, and maybe even most Canadians, do not know that Lake Winnipeg is in serious trouble.

It is the tenth largest freshwater lake in the world. Since the mid-1990s, Lake Winnipeg has experienced more frequent and more intense blooms of blue-green algae called cyanobacteria. Many species of cyanobacteria produce potent human and brain toxins that are harmful to people, pets, and wildlife. The growth of algae threatens the survival of fish in Lake Winnipeg and the lake itself. This algae is created by run-off of fertilizers, phosphorus and nitrogen, running off farmers’ fields and from the large mega-hog barns. The problem is being amplified due to climate change. As the hydrological cycle speeds up, heavier deluge rain events are more frequent, sweeping more nutrients into the lake. Observations by satellite confirm the summer blooms are covering a larger area and increasing in frequency.

The problem is that it is not clear how we can save Lake Winnipeg. It is enormous – 24,500 square kilometres. Cleaning up smaller lakes elsewhere in the world has run to billions. Meanwhile, the nutrients keep draining into the lake, the rains continue to become more intense.

Lake Winnipeg is not alone. According to some scientists, Lake Erie is now in worse shape than in 1970 when Life magazine’s cover story proclaimed “Lake Erie is dead.”

Freshwater issues we thought were solved in the 1970s are coming back – with a vengeance. And worryingly, it seems to have escaped the notice of many of us.

Meanwhile, critical research to find out what can be done to save Lake Winnipeg has been cancelled. As Ray Hesslein of the Lake Winnipeg Foundation science advisory board said quoted in the Winnipeg Free Press when the PM made his announcement:

“Much of the fundamental understanding of nutrient management in lakes so critical to the recovery of Lake Winnipeg has and is being developed at the ELA.”

Closing the Experimental Lakes Area is like shutting down a fire station while the fire is spreading. And, memo to the PMO talking point factory: Lake Winnipeg is not saved.

The post Newsflash: Lake Winnipeg is in serious trouble appeared first on Elizabeth May.