The Pembina Valley Water Co-op has developed a new drought management strategy following the completion of a nine month-long study.

The plan was created in collaboration with the Province and Associated Engineering, a consulting engineering firm. The water co-op also worked with Manitoba Sustainable Development to identify a monitoring process for indications of drought.

"We looked at how we could measure if we had a drought," said PVWC CEO Greg Archibald. "And then we also are now as we move forward looking at what would PVWC's role be, what would the municipalities' role be, and we are continuing that work for the next six months to try to come up with a very practical emergency operations plan as to what we'd do with the different municipalities if a drought happened."

How the water co-op would react to a drought and how it would ration water resources between the 14 member municipalities are other factors that must be considered, Archibald said.

This strategy does not include replacing the Letellier water treatment plant, however. Instead, the water co-op intends to build a new treated water reservoir at Letellier.

"As we worked through the process we found that having this treated water reservoir was a top priority, and whether we replaced the Letellier plant or whether we didn't we still need this (reservoir)," Archibald said.

The idea of replacing the Letellier water plant has not been completely written off, though. In the future there is the potential to replace or supplement the plant with a membrane plant, which still requires the addition of the treated water reservoir.

The emergency drought plan for the Pembina Valley Water Co-op and the 14 member municipalities is expected to be completed by the end of the year.