FEATURES : Water Security: A Fluid Challenge

Can a region provide a reliable supply of potable water to its population both now and in the future to do all of the things the region wants to do?
This is the definition of water security.

Jay Famiglietti, a NASA senior water scientist and global water crisis specialist, elaborated on this compelling topic during his presentation First Century Water Security as Viewed from Space during the APEGS annual meeting.

Famiglietti also is a hydrologist, professor and the executive director of the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan.

Water is a valuable commodity now and, Famiglietti believes, will become an even greater must-have in the years to follow. That’s because there are many competing uses for water – it’s needed for growing food, for the environment and human usage, for energy production and for economic growth.

Couple that with depleting aquifers and dwindling groundwater supply, population growth and climate change and you have a serious water-security challenge on your hands.
Saskatchewan’s role as one of the world’s primary food growers will continue to gain momentum thanks to new climate change models that predict longer growing seasons. Saskatchewan also boasts a healthy supply of groundwater.

But, Famiglietti sees challenges in the future to counter that optimism.

When working in the U.S. with NASA, Famiglietti was part of the team that sent GRACE (Gravity, Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite into space. This mission launched in 2002, aged out in 2017 and focused on Earth’s ice sheets, ocean mass and aquifers.
The key takeaway? Scientists learned which regions are gaining or losing water mass. The majority of regions within the high latitudes and low latitudes are mostly gaining water. The mid-latitude region is mostly losing water.

GRACE also confirmed the ice pack in Greenland and Antarctica are melting and contributing to sea level rise (three millimetres per year).

As for Saskatchewan, Famiglietti feels it’s faring better than most other major food-growing regions. Saskatchewan is well-positioned to grow more food. But there’s a catch.
“California is running out of water. The mid-U.S. states are running out of water. These are two crucial areas for growing food,” he says. “Our food-producing regions are in a state of chronic water scarcity. These are places that are trying to grow too much food with not enough water.”

“If our water security is at risk then so is our food security.”

As the planet’s temperature increases – the Prairies are increasing at three times the global rate – the growing season increases. The catch being unpredictable freshwater supply and a decreasing snowpack from the Rocky Mountains that flows in the North and South Saskatchewan rivers.

“We have an opportunity, if not a need, to fill this global food gap,” Famiglietti says. “But we need to do it sustainably. We need to be stewards of the water environment and nutrient management. We can learn from the mistakes from other regions that have gone into deficits.”

The deficits he refers to is in groundwater supply. Globally, groundwater provides a primary water source for nearly one-third of the world’s population. More than half of the world’s groundwater is used for irrigation.

Famiglietti says groundwater supply is healthy yet declining in the Prairies.

Central Valley in California, a primary crop-growing area, has been experiencing steady groundwater depletion for years. Farmers there are using more groundwater because there is no surface water available. During California’s peak drought in 2015, some subsidence was happening at one metre per year in some regions.

The world’s major aquifers aren’t faring much better. Because of climate change, the world’s dry areas are getting drier, which places more emphasis on groundwater usage.
More than half (20) of the world’s major aquifers (37) are being depleted. Agriculture is the main reason, with 80 per cent of the water being withdrawn going to agriculture uses.

Water from underground aquifers can help create rich farmland. However, many aquifers are being emptied far faster than they can be recharged by rainwater. The Ogallala (High Plains) Aquifer in the mid-United States is one of the largest in the world (450,000 square kilometres and eight states). It is at risk of depletion.

“This is a real tragedy,” Famiglietti says. “And it’s continual … things are not getting better.”

How do they improve? Famiglietti sees a need for more hydrogeological exploration. He says there’s a need for regional and global science, for engineering, for water policy and for more innovation.

He says the role of engineers is plentiful and critical in managing the world’s water supply.

“How can we adapt our infrastructure?” he asks. “What can we do about creating more efficient irrigation systems? There’s a need for better storage and management. We’re dealing with an increased frequency in flooding, so where can we improve the infrastructure with that?”

“Canada is doing a good job listening to these concerns. Globally, we’re under-institutionalized to tackle this problem. A lot of these water-supply issues are trans-boundary. There’s a lot of need to collaborate regionally in places that are really water stressed.”

Overall, though, Famiglietti sees everyone playing a role and possibly rethinking the approach to water management.

For potable water, for example, perhaps it’s time to consider different qualities of water used for different jobs, like questioning the use of purified water to flush toilets. Can we breed crops that are more saline tolerant? Humans also need to account for the effects of climate change and population growth.

“The human fingerprint on the freshwater landscape, through climate change and ice melting and through water management, is the dominant force that is causing this pattern,” Famiglietti says. “This is happening way faster than people realize.”

“(In Saskatchewan) … we don’t want to go from being a have region to a have-not region.”