YXE Underground digs into water security in Saskatoon

Phillip Harder loves water and enjoys travelling across the prairies to study it. This could mean digging a hole in the middle of a barley field south of Saskatoon to measure soil moisture, or flying a drone in the Rocky Mountains mapping glaciers.

“Obviously there are times when you’re sitting on the ridge and you’re 2,500 meters elevation above the tree-line and you’re like, ‘ok, this is pretty cool,’” says Harder in the season five debut of the YXE Underground podcast.

Harder is a Hydrologist and Research Associate for the Centre for Hydrology at the University of Saskatchewan. He’s also a member of a national team called the Global Water Future Research Project. Harder is helping communities and farmers on the prairies learn to best use their fresh water resources.

That includes Saskatoon, and the relationship with the South Saskatchewan River.

“We haven’t been in a situation where we need to start doing water restrictions. We’re not in the situation that the southern United States is in at the moment. However, we might have to start thinking about things down the road because the South Saskatchewan River, like any fresh water, is a finite resource," Harder explained.

Sharing his research is something Harder takes a lot of pride in, and communicating new information with people from different backgrounds is something Jay Famiglietti says is crucial.

Famiglietti is the Executive Director for the Global Institute of Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan. When it comes to sharing information on the impact of climate change on fresh water in Saskatchewan, Famigliett says you have to speak with everyone involved.

“You can often be preaching to the choir which is great, but what’s really important is to be able to reach those people who are a little more difficult to convince,” he told YXE Underground Host Eric Anderson.

To listen to this episode, and all previous episodes, head to yxeunderground.com