Climate change and torrential rains: Mississauga invests $ 20 million

A year after the torrential rains that fell on the Grand Toronto, the city of Mississauga says it is investing at least $ 20 million this year to modernize its rainwater mitigation infrastructure.

After the intense rains of last summer, the City wanted to act quickly to improve its water management programsexplains Emma Calvert, director of infrastructure planning engineering services for the city of Mississauga.

A record of 280 millimeters of rain had paralyzed several cities of the Grand Toronto last summer.

The city’s water management system had then been overloaded, leading to several floods and also damaging several houses, adds Ms. Calvert.

The money invested will be used to modernize the rainwater system and to hire more employees which will notably follow training specialized in the surveillance of indicators, argues the director.

Residents of Mississauga having been affected by the floods can also file a request from a financial aid program set up by the city, would like to specify Ms. Calvert.

Reduce

These torrential rains will be increasingly frequent due to climate change, says the climatologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada David Phillips.

Although we cannot prevent torrential rains, it is not a reason to do nothing. The impacts must be reduced.

The climatologist applauds the city’s initiative and encourages other Canadian cities to do the same.

Mr. Phillips also believes that the infrastructures built about forty years ago are not adapted to the current climate or that of tomorrow, hence the need for cities to modernize them in order to reduce the consequences of such bad weather.

He adds that the decrease in green spaces in urban environments, often replaced by parking lots, contributes to the poor absorption of water by the soil.