Water sharing in Southern Alberta

In this paper, we review the history of water sharing of licensed water from in-stream flows involving irrigation districts in southern Alberta. This study updates earlier research in relation to “water-sharing for other purpose uses” (OPU), and also incorporates a review of other voluntary water-sharing protocols that have been used in southern Alberta, during periods of drought.We find that both voluntary water sharing in times of drought, and OPU water sharing in non-drought situations, have both worked effectively in addressing water shortages arising from different circumstances. Our updated results pertaining to the Bennett, Phillips, and Gallagher work indicate that little in the way of new OPU water-sharing agreements has arisen since 2014, on which the Bennett, Phillips, and Gallagher data was based. Furthermore, we find that there has not been a plethora of water-sharing for OPU agreements, placing heavy stress on such resources. In fact, there appears to be considerable additional scope for OPU agreements in all of the irrigation districts that have such agreements in place. This scope, however, pre-supposes that historical in-stream flows continue, although there is evidence indicating climate change is likely to affect water availability in the South Saskatchewan River Basin.In conclusion, we note that it is perhaps the case that businesses, municipalities and agricultural users are not fully aware of the scope and volume of OPU for licensed water that could be available to them for their various economic activities. This proposition is one that is the subject of continuing research.