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It’s astounding that Saskatchewan still doesn’t have a comprehensive policy to manage and preserve its wetlands, which have been steadily drained since the early 1900s to accommodate agriculture. More than 50 per cent of these invaluable sites have now disappeared while the rest are under threat.
With half of Canada’s arable land, Saskatchewan should be the leader in acting to preserve wetlands that provide a wide array of environmental services such as serving as wildlife habitats and carbon sinks, producing pollinators, recharging aquifers, purifying water, retaining nutrients, mitigating flooding, contributing to soil health, and providing water security in a drought-prone province.
Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) Annual Report 2020
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DIRECTOR’S SUMMARY
The year 2020 was a difficult one, for all nations, for all people. The Pandemic hit everybody hard and, at times the year just did not make sense. And yet, in peculiar ways, it was a year of great success for UNU-INWEH. The main event of the year for UNU-INWEH has been the announcement, by the Government of Canada, of its renewed financial support for the Institute of C$2 million per year for five years, from 2020 to 2025. The funding announcement coincided with the United Nations’ 75th anniversary. With that the Institute started to implement its new Strategic Plan that focuses on four interconnected areas: accelerating the implementation of water-related SDGs, activating a technology revolution for water security in the global South, advancing gender equality for effective water management; and managing water and climate-related risks and operationalising water security. All