Did you know during a recent storm the City of Winnipeg released 60 million litres of raw sewage into the Red River? Did you know the City of Morden, Manitoba almost ran out of potable water during the extreme drought last summer?

Climate change has already started wreaking havoc on the water systems of the Prairies and that is having substantial impacts on cities across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and adapting is going to cost Canadians billions. This week, senior producer Sarah Lawrynuik will explain why.

Featured in this episode: Brandon Burley, mayor of Morden; Santokh Randhawa, deputy city manager of Morden; Bill Buhay, associate professor at the University of Winnipeg; Frank Frigo, City of Calgary water resources engineer; Dave Sauchyn, the director of the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative (PARC); Raven Sharma, manager of utilities for the City of Selkirk; Duane Nicol, chief administrative officer for the City of Selkirk; Saman Razavi, associate professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

Further reading:

• Weekend deluge could produce worst conditions since Flood of the Century, provincial officials warn, Winnipeg Free Press
• ‘It was hard enough before’: Manitoba’s drought, worsened by climate crisis, is upending Prairie life, The Narwhal
  
• Alberta wrestles with its most critical resource: water, The Narwhal
• 60 million litres of raw sewage released into Red River during storm, Winnipeg Free Press
• Construction on long-awaited Springbank reservoir to protect Calgary area from floods is officially a go, CBC News
• Sask. gov’t announces $4B project to double irrigable land in province, CBC News
• Selkirk opening state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant in 2021, CTV News

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