Moratorium is Good First Step for Bow River Basin

Bow Riverkeeper News

Aug 30th 2006

The Government's announcement to stop issuing licenses for the Bow and Oldman Rivers is a necessary first step towards better management of water in the Bow River Basin. But we still have much work ahead to achieve the "sustainability" promised to us in Alberta's Water for Life strategy.

The fact is that we finished handing out the water long ago, and in recent years we have been reduced to handing out promises. In 2001 - a dry year - we had more water allocations than we did water. In the five years since, we have promised away more.

We welcome the announcement that the government will not be giving away any more of our river. But we still need to face the fact that we have already promised away too much water. It's time to make some payments against our environmental debt.

Just this summer, the lowest section of the Bow River was driven below 10 cubic metres per second - roughly 10% of natural flows. Does this seem sustainable and balanced to you? Clearly moratoriums aren't enough.

But the moratorium is an important first step. The next step is to acknowledge that the status quo is not economically or environmentally sustainable. If Water for Life is to be "Alberta's Strategy for Sustainability", then we must adopt more progressive water management practices for the water we have already allocated.

The Government of Alberta's press release is available from their web site at www.gov.ab.ca


Bow Riverkeeper[email protected] • ph:403-762-0591