IMPLEMENTING COMMUNITY CITIZEN ENGAGED BEST MANAGEMENT PRACTICES THROUGH ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT IN SASKATCHEWAN 

The SSHRC Urban Best Management Project focuses on Best Management Practices/BMP in water governance and climate change adaptations in SK. This unique project asserts that the SK province in greatly affected by floods and droughts, which will be further exacerbated by the increasing climate variability. The project understands that water crisis a crisis of governance and that water research till date has largely focused on technical solutions but here we focus on how social relations combined with technology allows communities to engage in better water governance and climate change adaptation thereby reducing vulnerability and building their institutional capital and create adaptive governance and management.  The project further understands that communities are “smart” and have developed solutions to their problems and efficient governance instruments to address the water and climate problems. This project examines 13 SK municipalities, namely Radisson, Yorktown, Mitswasis, Avonlea, Estevan, RM of Storhoaks, Okabene C and D, Weyburn Regional Utility, City of Saskatoon Northeast Swale, First Nations Cowasses, Kattepwa Resort village that have been employing BMPs with intensive community involvement. The project aim is to discover and strengthen such solutions such as BMPs such as Big ditch drainage for crop flooding in Okabene C and D, Tertiary Water Treatment Plant in City of Estevan, Husky Oil Spill contamination addressal in Melfort, Source Water Protection Plan in Mitswasis. The project also aims to work with various levels of government along with the communities, watershed groups and other stakeholders to create forums of interaction, like workshops for knowledge exchange, and create strategies and decisions for better water governance and climate adaptation for provincial and federal governments and provide support to communities as need be.