Officials of the City of Saskatoon say that there is not much they can do to resolve the area’s severe flooding whenever it rains.
The city was hit by a storm on Tuesday. Heavy rainfall from the weather event – considered the region’s second major downpour this summer – led to extensive flooding.
“There is definitely a limit to what the storm sewer can take,” Saskatoon water and sewer manager Galen Heinrichs told CBC. “I would say there are very limited things that can be done.”
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Of all the areas in the city, the Nutana neighbourhood saw the heaviest rainfall. Environment Canada said that it received 57 millimeters of rain, most of it in less than an hour.
“There is no way to build infrastructure for these types of storms in terms of catch basins and pipes that can solve it,” Heinrichs added. “Generally the solution for these types of storm events is to store the water in a pond, and so that’s why it is such a challenge in built up areas.”
Heinrichs explained that it could be possible to create ponds to store water from heavy rain but it would cost a lot of money. For such a project, he estimated a cost between $3 million and $6 million just to prevent flooding at a single intersection in Saskatoon.
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