Are we running out of water? That may seem like a preposterous question to ask, given that our country has some of the largest freshwater reserves in the world. We used to think our water supply was pure and limitless. We now know that it's neither.

Canada (in particular a large portion of the West) is getting drier year by year, yet we haven't committed the resources to determine how bad the problem really is; how fast the changes are occurring; and whether anything can be done to reverse the trend.

Whose job is it to do that? The Feds. Water is a shared responsibility between the provinces and Canada, but traditionally it was always federal governments that provided the leadership (and large parts of the funding) so that scientists would have that vital information. But for the past couple of decades successive federal governments have backed away from that responsibility.

So, we know that there's a water problem. But we don't have the essential facts. Without the facts, we can't solve the problem.

One thing that we do know is that some regions of Canada face greater water challenges than others -- notably our own backyard. Dr. David Schindler of the University of Alberta argues that Alberta is the area of greatest concern because "in addition to being an extremely arid part of the country, it is developing rapidly."

In parts of Alberta more water evaporates up into the air every year than falls to the ground in rain or snow. We have been accustomed to glacial melt making up the difference. But those glaciers on which we have relied are receding at accelerating rates. In parts of Alberta water consumption now matches or exceeds what is renewed every year. And the increased development in many of our urban areas is putting new pressures on wetlands and other sources of natural capital, jeopardizing nature's ability to provide water for life. And without water, there is no life.

We use enormous amounts of water in Alberta. Everybody knows that we use lots of it in extracting oil from the oilsands; but we also use huge amounts in agriculture, in industrial applications, and in our expanding towns and cities.

We need to find ways to make our water consumption more efficient, and to conserve and preserve this most precious of our resources for the long term. We need to find ways to head off the otherwise-inevitable clashes between all of these competing interests; and the clash between the present and the future.

You would think that our national governments would have kept a close eye on our water supply to ensure that we don't have these problems. Well they haven't, and they're not doing it now. Federal governments have pretty well ignored the warnings. They have abdicated their responsibility to get the facts. So we simply don't know what's going on.

Our government can't give Canadians a report on the state of Canada's water supply. Stunning. I have asked many experts for that information, and they all have the same answer: The government has not provided the resources to properly map our aquifers, monitor the flow of our rivers and streams, or keep track of water levels in lakes. No one in Canada has a clue about the true state of our water supply.

In 2005 the Senate released the report Water In the West: Under Pressure. It was hoped that the government would take heed, notice that we are facing a potential water crisis, and see that monitoring, measurements and research are desperately needed.

That hope was misplaced.

We need leadership from the top on the state of Canada's water, and we haven't had any for a long time.

Tommy Banks is a Liberal member of the Senate of Canada.

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