Low water levels pose challenge for dragon boat festival in Stratford, Ont.

CTV’s Karis Mapp explains why organizers for a major dragon boat festival in Stratford are making contingency plans one month ahead of the event.

A festival in Stratford, Ont. may have to make some changes due to low water levels along a popular river.

The Avon River has been low since debris became lodged under a sluice gate during a storm on July 24. While the gate was stuck in the open position, water slowly drained from Lake Victoria and the Avon River.

Now, water levels are slowly improving, but with less than a month left until the Stratford Rotary Dragon Boat Festival, organizers are preparing to make alternate arrangements.

“The contingency plan is to go to another [Upper Thames River Conservation Authority] park, which is the Wildwood Conservation Area, which is about 16 km south of Stratford near St. Marys,” Robert Ritz, chair of the Stratford Rotary Dragon Boat Festival, explained.

Organizers are still hoping Mother Nature will swoop in and bring some much-needed rain to help replenish the water in the lake and river, saying the experience in Stratford is like no other.

“Stratford’s got a venue that’s so intimate and you can see the theatre when you leave port. We have an island that the boats are docked at,” Ritz said.

Teams are also closely watching the water.

“We were concerned that our festival won’t be happening,” David Stock, with the Schaeffler Canada Bearing Arms team, said. “After 29 years of having a festival here, it’s kind of scary not to have a festival in your hometown.”

Although some rain earlier this week helped raise water levels by approximately 29 ml, they are still sitting about a metre lower than typical summer levels.

“I honestly think that we’re going to get to where we need to be,” Stock told CTV news. “We’re still a month away, and I believe that there’s probably enough rain.”

Organizers are also considering one other option that would involve pumping water from a nearby gravel pit into the Avon River for two weeks straight.

“The way we would do it is to place a pump here and then that pump with hoses would push the water into the river,” Ritz said.

But the plan is not without challenges.

“They’ll probably have to clear the grass to make room for the pipe, and some brush in this area. So the concern is washout at the point where we discharge [water] into the river,” Ritz said. “But the Avon River is connected by two culverts. The plan is to put a pipe in a culvert on this side, then we have the length of the culvert to take that discharge load.”

He said the plan has approval from the Ministry of Natural Resources, but still needs the green light from the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks.

Stratford’s Mayor Martin Ritsma called the festival a ‘wonderful tradition’ and noted it is important to the community.

“I would love to see if take place here on Lake Victoria as planned next month,” he said, in part, in a statement emailed to CTV News.

He noted there are ‘many unknowns’ at this point, including how plans to bring up the water levels may impact aquatic life and overall costs.

“Any strategy to bring the water levels back up will have to be, first and foremost, environmentally responsible, but also within our means to do,” his email said.

But for now, racers are praying for precipitation.

“I would prefer that Mother Nature would rain, save the water in the gravel pit and it comes back up and we get our festival back.”

The Stratford Rotary Dragon Boat Festival is set for Saturday Sept. 13. According to the event’s website 43 teams have signed up to take part and they anticipate more than 3,000 spectators would come out to cheer on the athletes.