Concerns raised over Albertas water-sharing agreement [Video]

The Alberta government has announced what it’s calling the largest water-sharing agreement in the province’s history, but some say it doesn’t go far enough.

This will mean in a severe drought, municipalities would cut water usage.

Municipalities, irrigation districts and industry players have signed memorandums of understanding covering four sub-basins — the Red Deer River, the Bow River, the mainstem of the Oldman River and upper tributaries of the Oldman.

The deals are billed as the biggest of their kind in Alberta’s history and dwarf ones inked during the 2001 drought.

“These agreements — they didn’t come together overnight,” Rebecca Schulz, the provincial environment minister, said at a news conference Friday. “They represent countless hours of negotiation, compromises and a shared belief that Albertans are better off working together in a potential time of water scarcity.”

Schulz said municipalities have agreed to cut their water use by between five and …