Anxiety rising as water levels drop in N.W.T.'s South Slave, Dehcho

As you approach the Deicho Bridge, which connects Fort Providence with the NWT highway system, you can see rocks and patches of sand sticking up out of the mighty Mackenzie River. That's the Merv Hardy Ferry back there. It was replaced by the Deicho Bridge in 2012. Residents here in Fort Providence questioned whether that ferry would even be able to cross the Mackenzie River. Nowadays, with water levels this low, the territorial government has noticed it too. They say flow rates on lakes and rivers across most of the NWT remain very low and in some cases are the lowest ever recorded for this time of year. This hydrologist says a lack of precipitation is to blame. Extreme low water levels are the result of extreme drought over the last two 2 1/2 years since about the summer of 2022. So there hasn't been very much water flowing into Great Slave Lake. The Mackenzie River drains Great Slave Lake. It moves water from Great Slave Lake through the Northwest Territories to the Arctic Ocean. And there's been more water coming out of Great Slave Lake than has been going in. In Fort Simpson, it's the same story. Bob Norwegian is a community elder. He says he's shocked by what he sees on the river. The water used to be about like 10 feet higher than normal. That's what we call low level. Right now it seems like it's almost 8 feet normal below no are no normal anyway. And there's boulders all over the place that most people are really concerned about traveling the water. Fort Simpson is accessed by the Liard ferry in summer months. Norwegians Norwegian says he's hopeful the territory will consider building a bridge into the community. To avoid any problems, the territorial government did a preliminary study of the potential for a bridge in 2021, but there's still nothing in the works. Everyone's worried. The manager of lands and resources for the Litaquay First Nation says there's problems other than transport associated with low water levels. As water levels go down, the concentration of dissolved solids goes up. He says this is particularly concerning if those solids happen to be pollutants. The First Nation is preparing a study to deal with that problem. We're working with fish biologists and other groups to gather that information to see what the health of the animals are and see what's kind of coming out from that kind of information to you. With anxiety steadily rising across the territory, the question remains, will levels ever return to normal? Ryan Conan says it won't be a permanent change. We will get more precipitation. Eventually. We will get wet periods. We will see the atmospheric and climate conditions that are conducive to bringing water back to the lake. But unfortunately, I can't tell you if that's going to be this summer or next summer or five summers from now. A long time for elders and residents who continue to watch the water vanish from the shores. Robert Holden, CBC News for Providence.