The fate of this year’s Stratford Rotary Dragon Boat Festival will be decided in a few weeks.
The popular event returns next month, with 40-plus teams taking part in the races.
Water was recently drained from Lake Victoria, due to a blockage, and its in the process of being refilled but it may not be at a level sufficient enough for the festival.
Related: Filling up Lake Victoria will be slow going without heavy rain – My Stratford Now
Dragon Boat Festival Chair Robert Ritz said there are two options.
“Fill the river and have the event in Stratford or relocate the event to another venue such as Wildwood,” said Ritz.
“I’ve got an engineer that’s helping us out of the Rotary Club of Stratford to review the possibility of taking water out of a gravel pit three kilometres east of Stratford, putting it into the Avon River to refill it, (so it’s) ready for race day.”
If approved, pumps would draw three feet of water from the gravel pit to fill the Avon River, 24 hours a day for two weeks straight.
Ritz says if that option isn’t available, they are also planning to set the event up in the Wildwood Conservation Area, a venue nearly 14 kilometres southwest of Stratford.
He said that would be an exercise as he doesn’t have an Island for his docks, and he would need to buy/rent docks for that event.
“The venue is big enough, has deeper water and viewings similar but not as intimate as Stratford’s event,” said Ritz.
“The pit owner Mike Wilhelm and Perth East are both on board to letting us to use the water. The City of Stratford has said if I can get Upper Thames (Conservation Authority) to accept the pit water, we’ll provide the pumps to put the water into the river.”
Ritz’s engineer and a biologist are looking at checking the boxes for approval required by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks, who according to Ritz “recognize the urgency and are willing to assist to make this happen.”
He adds the chances of cancelling the event are low, and that for filling the river, they need it to be full a week before race day on Sept. 13 to set everything up.
The cut-off date for the pumps to start is Aug. 23. Ritz said if the water starts flowing that day, they will monitor it to make sure aquatic life along the river isn’t drastically affected.
If monitoring goes well, they’ll decide by Sept. 6 whether to run the event in Stratford or move it to Wildwood.
