Western Irrigation District – past, present and future

By John Godsman Times Contributor

Around 6,000 BC, flood waters from the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates Rivers were first diverted to fields in Egypt, Iran and Iraq, marking the beginning of irrigated agriculture as we know it.
In the 1870s, our nation, not even four years old, commissioned the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) to construct a railway to facilitate settlement in Western Canada. It was reasoned that prime farm land in the west, when irrigated, could provide enough produce to feed the growing population in the east.
Commencing in the Strathmore area, the CPR began construction of a network of canals, using horsepower and men armed with shovels and plows, to open the previously unbroken ground. The CPR operated this canal network until the early 1940s when it declared its intent to end its involvement in irrigation. The communities and farmers the Western Irrigation District (WID) serve today should be thankful for the foresight the first board of trustees possessed to acquire the complete irrigation system from the CPR. This led to the establishment of the WID on May 1, 1944.
In the early years, most irrigation employed traditional flood methods, similar to those used for thousands of years around the world. These early systems gave way first to wheel move systems, and now to pivot and drip systems. Pivot and drip systems are the systems that can be seen in most fields in the area today, due to their ability to save energy, labour and water simultaneously. Drip irrigation, which is predominantly used in nurseries and market gardens, can be over 95 per cent efficient, using one-third of the water consumed by the flood system.
The WID has changed and evolved over its 75 years of history, with backhoes replacing horses and canals being converted to pipelines. However, the mission to provide water for the benefit of farmers who make up the WID remains intact.
The future presents many opportunities: water savings from higher efficiency irrigation systems can allow for the expansion of irrigation which will sustain the future vitality of this area and its economy. Additionally, the coming 75 years is likely to present challenges, such as climate change which was not previously experienced, and the WID will have to be resilient in adapting to meet them.
The WID will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2019 and recognizes it as a time to both honour the past and look ahead to the future. It will honour its heritage by presenting a series of articles throughout 2019 highlighting the contributions of irrigators whose efforts have allowed the WID to become what it is today.
Everyone in the WID community is invited to join in this celebration of its 75th anniversary, which will recognize past contributions and provide insight that can and will be used in the next 75 years.