Nova Scotians ‘need to act now’ to prepare for drought, says minister

As hot weather arrives in Nova Scotia, the provincial government is looking to help municipalities and residents prepare for drought, which one cabinet minister described Friday as an inevitability.

This week, the Department of Municipal Affairs issued a tender for companies to bid on a year-long contract to provide emergency potable water.

It would allow municipalities who run bottled water programs to tap into an affordable price and a reliable source. The provincial government has already said it will not cover emergency bottled water expenses for municipalities dealing with drought this year.

A water data portal also launched recently, allowing anyone to see groundwater levels in test wells throughout the province, water quality data, and precipitation amounts.

“Every Nova Scotian should realize they need to act now and they need to plan and prepare. And I do mean everyone,” Municipal Affairs Minister John A. MacDonald said Friday.

“Whether you’re on municipal [water] or whether you’re a well, everyone needs to look at conservation, how we use our water resources, because it’s changed.

“Drought is not an if — it’s a when.”

MacDonald said the province will soon update its website to give residents more tools and resources to help them plan for water shortages.

Last year, the province received less than 40 per cent of its normal precipitation and southwestern Nova Scotia experienced a one-in-50-year drought. Several towns in the province experienced their driest three-month period on record.

In the most recent update from the Canadian Drought Monitor, most of the province’s South Shore and part of the Annapolis Valley remained abnormally dry as of May 31.

$6.3M fund for water projects

Applications for the latest round of the provincial sustainable communities challenge fund are open until July 23, with $6.3 million that municipalities, non-profits, and Mi’kmaw communities can use to help pay for water projects.

They could include community wells, backup water systems like cisterns for key buildings or first responders, engineering studies, and regional solutions like new water pipes.

The fund website said successful projects will likely be announced this fall, and must be completed by Nov. 30, 2027.

David Mitchell, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities and Bridgewater’s mayor, said it is too early to say whether the $6.3 million will be enough to cover all local governments that are interested.

“I think we’re all concerned about the season that’s coming. So I will say that any program that the province is providing, any information that the province is providing is very, very helpful,” said Mitchell.

“We’re just waiting to see what the summer is going to bring … I hope it rains at least on the weekdays.”

The Municipality of the District of Barrington hopes the fund will help pay for a land-based desalination system — a first for Nova Scotia.

Chris Frotten, Barrington’s chief administrative officer, said the municipality is finalizing the terms of the project with Quebec’s Oneka Technologies that would see ocean water drawn into a system and turned into drinking water in a holding tank.

The municipality would distribute it through bulk water stations for people year-round who are seeing water shortages or dealing with saltwater intruding into their wells.

The project could be ready by this fall, said Frotten.

All of the municipality’s roughly 3,700 households are on private wells or water systems, he said, and many have upgraded their water systems as the area has regularly dealt with drought conditions over the past decade.

Better data needed to cover all parts of N.S.

Although the new data portal is helpful, Frotten said he would like to see it expanded and improved because there are no test wells within the Barrington municipality.

“All of that can get quite complicated for, you know, smaller municipalities that do not have a lot of … expertise or skills or knowledge around it.”

A spokesperson for the Municipal Affairs Department said the province is working with the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities to build support across communities, like shared resource inventories.

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