‘We have to do something’: Indigenous advocacy group opposes irrigation project

WATCH: A group of Indigenous women are sounding the alarm over low water levels in their communities.

A group of Indigenous women from Cumberland House and Star Blanket Cree Nation are sharing their concerns over water security in their communities.

“The Campbell Dam, which we’re just below from, that lake used to be 30 miles long and it used to be 30 to 40 feet deep. Today, it’s barely two miles across, two feet of water and the rest of the sludgy sandbar and mud,” Denise McKenzie, a Saskatchewan River Delta advocate said.

McKenzie is part of the Indigenous Saskatchewan Women’s Environmental Water Advocacy Keepers. The group recently hosted an event in Saskatoon’s Rotary Park to share their concerns and teach the public about the Saskatchewan River Delta.

“We have to do something, you know … before it completely dies on us. And we need that water, our environment needs that water. Our wildlife needs that water, and we as human beings, we need that water,” Veronica Favel, an advocate for the Saskatchewan River Delta said.

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The event specifically highlighted concerns about the Lake Diefenbaker Irrigation project. The $4 billion project is intended to utilize water from southern Saskatchewan’s largest body of water to help agricultural production.

In June, Cumberland House Cree Nation filed a lawsuit against the province for failing to protect the river delta, warning that industrial and agricultural activity upstream was causing an “ecological crisis.”

The lawsuit alleged the province was promoting further development without a credible plan to manage the environmental impacts.

At the time, the First Nation said animal and fish populations in the delta have plummeted, and the water was no longer safe to drink.

“It’s going really fast. I can see the next decade, if we continue this way, it’s going to go on. And with the irrigation project that’s going to totally wipe us out sooner,” McKenzie said on Wednesday.

In a statement to CTV News, the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency (WSA) said it was planning a consultation process with stakeholders in the near future.

“WSA has proactively declared this project for a provincial environmental assessment and is committed to collecting feedback with rights holders and stakeholders through various engagements over the next several months,” the water regulator said.

“Gardiner Dam and Lake Diefenbaker were built for one million acres of modern irrigation. Currently there are 166,000 acres of irrigation developed in the reservoir. This means there is significant opportunity for development while still balancing the needs of other water users in the system.”

But those in Rotary Park on Wednesday afternoon shared that it is about more than one irrigation project.

“It’s really important because we’re losing a lot of our traditional ways of life. We see it with the fires, we’re seeing it with the loss of our water, that it’s not just us that’s being affected. It’s not just the humans. It’s the animals, it’s all of our ways of life,” Jocelyn Ormero, the president of Gabriel Dumont Local 11 said.

Ormero said that while not all Saskatchewan municipalities have bodies of water running through, there is a responsibility of those in the province to protect natural resources for the next generation to see.

“It’s important that the next generation coming up in those places have some place to grow up. Because living in a city isn’t everything for all of us. It’s important to have those ways of life continue on in that tradition,” Ormero said.

The group will be heading to Regina on Thursday to share their message in front of the Saskatchewan legislature.

“Without protecting the water, without our traditional ecological knowledge, things aren’t okay, and we’re seeing that in the world right now. Everything’s on fire. And had [we] listened to Indigenous ways of knowing, that might not be the case,” Ormero said.

-With files from Rory MacLean