Illegal ditches doing more harm than good

In the past few years, southwestern Manitoba has been hard hit by heavy rain. Local officials say that's resulted in farmers digging hundreds of illegal drainage ditches in an effort to get unwanted water off their farmland.

Water from the illegal ditches sometimes creates other problems washing out roads, or flooding a neighbour's land.

Now one farmer who says he's been forced to dig ditches to drain water off his land, says he has high hopes for a pilot project that's just started.

Ed De Koning, who farms near Neepawa, says two years ago he requested permits to drain water from his fields into public ditches. He's still waiting for government approval. So De Koning went ahead and did some of the work anyway.

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As of April 1, local officials began dealing with those applications. And eventually that could cut the waiting time for farmers like De Koning from a few years to six months.

"Public officials say, 'I've got your application' and you're shoved down the line. After seeing that for two or three years, you just lose respect. And you're just going to say, 'I have to take care of my own problems. Nobody else is going to fix my problems.' That's why I'm quite excited to see this pilot project in my own area. Because I do have the experience."

The pilot project involves the province and the Whitemud Watershed Conservation District. It will give the conservation district and the community more say in approving drainage permits.