March 22, 2021: CELEBRATING World Water Day
By Anthony Walsh
March 22 is World Water Day, a 28-year-old event that aims to raise awareness about the global water crisis. Canadians are largely unaware of water scarcity as we live in one of the countries with the most freshwater on the planet. However, Canada’s water supply is acutely dependent on the health of our rivers and glaciers in the western provinces — and one water expert is sounding the alarm.
Bob Sandford is known as the “Winston Churchill of Water.” He holds the Chair in Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health and has co-authored or edited over 35 books, including Our Vanishing Glaciers: The Snows of Yesteryear and the Future Climate of the Mountain West. Needless to say, when Sandford talks about water, it’s best to take note.
Sandford is taking the opportunity of this year’s World Water Day to highlight its central theme: the valuing of our planet’s most precious resource. “The global water crisis shouldn’t be taken for granted [by Canadians] because our hydrology is changing very rapidly,” he says. “What’s missing here in Canada is a broader sense of urgency.”
Indeed, Canada’s water health depends primarily on its three largest rivers, which all stem from mountain terrain: the Mackenzie, Saskatchewan and Columbia rivers. Melting glaciers and changing snowfall patterns fundamentally affect our country’s hydrology, altering everything from the ratio of snow and rain, to the seasonal flow of mountain rivers. Nowadays, there are places in the Columbia River that do not generate their own stream flow — there is simply not enough precipitation. Sandford says the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers are particularly vulnerable as they provide so much of the important agricultural water for irrigation on the prairies. As mountain water supplies dwindle in the coming decades, these agricultural locales will be under great pressure to adapt, even survive. “By 2050, and certainly by 2100, the Canadian west is going to be a very different place. And these kinds of changes, if we don’t get on top of them, will change the Canadian prairies as much as [European] settlement did,” he says.
As Sandford noted in 2020’s World Water Day address, which can be found at the bottom of this page, “[The Columbia Icefield] is one of the last places in Canada where the weather and water interact in exactly the same way they did during the last Ice Age.” That said, the Columbia Icefield is certainly melting at a rapid pace and the loss of glacial ice is a symptom of a much larger problem.
Thankfully, Sandford is not without hope. “Our society is living a truly transformational moment right now,” he says. “The last time a renaissance happened was after a plague, so maybe it’s time we have another.” In order to succeed, Sandford says the younger generations must hold an absolutely pivotal role in this movement. By investing in their clear sightedness, their enthusiasm and their courage, he believes they will be the ones to make the real transition towards a water-conscious future.
Sandford ends his 2020 address with a question, “Why is it that every disaster movie begins with a scientist being ignored? We need to dispel the myth of limitless water in Canada and we need to do it now.”
March 22, 2021: CELEBRATING World Water Day
By Anthony Walsh
March 22 is World Water Day, a 28-year-old event that aims to raise awareness about the global water crisis. Canadians are largely unaware of water scarcity as we live in one of the countries with the most freshwater on the planet. However, Canada’s water supply is acutely dependent on the health of our rivers and glaciers in the western provinces — and one water expert is sounding the alarm.
Bob Sandford is known as the “Winston Churchill of Water.” He holds the Chair in Water and Climate Security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health and has co-authored or edited over 35 books, including Our Vanishing Glaciers: The Snows of Yesteryear and the Future Climate of the Mountain West. Needless to say, when Sandford talks about water, it’s best to take note.
Sandford is taking the opportunity of this year’s World Water Day to highlight its central theme: the valuing of our planet’s most precious resource. “The global water crisis shouldn’t be taken for granted [by Canadians] because our hydrology is changing very rapidly,” he says. “What’s missing here in Canada is a broader sense of urgency.”
Indeed, Canada’s water health depends primarily on its three largest rivers, which all stem from mountain terrain: the Mackenzie, Saskatchewan and Columbia rivers. Melting glaciers and changing snowfall patterns fundamentally affect our country’s hydrology, altering everything from the ratio of snow and rain, to the seasonal flow of mountain rivers. Nowadays, there are places in the Columbia River that do not generate their own stream flow — there is simply not enough precipitation. Sandford says the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers are particularly vulnerable as they provide so much of the important agricultural water for irrigation on the prairies. As mountain water supplies dwindle in the coming decades, these agricultural locales will be under great pressure to adapt, even survive. “By 2050, and certainly by 2100, the Canadian west is going to be a very different place. And these kinds of changes, if we don’t get on top of them, will change the Canadian prairies as much as [European] settlement did,” he says.
As Sandford noted in 2020’s World Water Day address, which can be found at the bottom of this page, “[The Columbia Icefield] is one of the last places in Canada where the weather and water interact in exactly the same way they did during the last Ice Age.” That said, the Columbia Icefield is certainly melting at a rapid pace and the loss of glacial ice is a symptom of a much larger problem.
Thankfully, Sandford is not without hope. “Our society is living a truly transformational moment right now,” he says. “The last time a renaissance happened was after a plague, so maybe it’s time we have another.” In order to succeed, Sandford says the younger generations must hold an absolutely pivotal role in this movement. By investing in their clear sightedness, their enthusiasm and their courage, he believes they will be the ones to make the real transition towards a water-conscious future.
Sandford ends his 2020 address with a question, “Why is it that every disaster movie begins with a scientist being ignored? We need to dispel the myth of limitless water in Canada and we need to do it now.”
is one of Canada’s leading alpine climbers, with experience in many of the world’s Great Ranges. Based in Canada’s mountains, he’s repeated and established some of the most remote and esthetic climbs on the Columbia Icefield. He has pushed the limits above glaciers on North America’s highest mountains. And established a route on a Himalayan peak, K6 West at a grade of WI5 M6 over 1,800 metres with Raphael Slawinski. The ascent earned them both the prestigious climbing award known as the Piolets d’Or.
is an ice-core scientist and high-altitude mountaineer. National Geographic Explorer, Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and Director of the Canadian Ice Core Lab at the University of Alberta. In addition to her academic work, she is a co-founder of Girls on Ice Canada and an avid adventurer and mountain climber.