Manitoba Agriculture Water Management Association (MAWMA) held its first annual summer tour last week. Almost 50 people, including farmers, contractors, and politicians from across the province, toured six different sites in the Morden/Winkler area.

The tour focused on water management, including a stop at a reservoir site currently being constructed, as well as the opportunity to see a tiling demonstration.

"[We were also at] the bioreactor site at the Morden Research Station," says Chris Unrau, MAWMA president. "So that's a new technology that they're studying, which uses underground woodchip pits to treat the water that's coming off an agricultural field. And what happens is the bacteria thrive and grow off of the wood-chips, that's they're food source, and they consume the nitrogen that's coming with the water that's being drained off the field."

The tour highlighted water management work because the Morden/Winkler area is like the epicenter of tile drainage in Manitoba, however MAWMA covers the whole province, as reflected in the participants of the summer tour.

"Water management is a technique — a practice, let's say — that's becoming more and more common throughout farms across Western Canada," says Unrau. "Whether it's surface drainage, ditches, tile drainage, irrigation — any form or method of managing water — has become increasingly critical and important to farms across Western Canada."

Unrau says it's been exciting to see how MAWMA has been able to raise awareness about water management in the province.