A new plan has been hatched to try and solve the chronic water shortage at Oakview Golf and Country Club north of Gretna.

A lack of normal rainfall this year once again forced the club to use a significant amount of water from its reservoir in order to keep the course in decent shape. However, in order to conserve the precious commodity, watering operations were restricted to its greens and tee boxes only.

Earlier this summer, the recommendation was made to deepen the reservoir located north of the driving range in order to accommodate a higher volume. However, upon further review, Club President Craig Neufeld now says the most cost-effective answer is to try and retain water at the pond's current capacity.

"We have a wall there that seeps a lot, and when it does rain we'd like to keep the water that we have," he said.

He estimates since the late-summer rains began followed by the record-breaking Thanksgiving weekend snowstorm, the reservoir has already lost over 1 million gallons of water.

Neufeld adds nothing has been finalized yet, however, plans for a weir dam have been submitted to the Manitoba Water Services Board for review.

If approved and the work is completed, Neufeld says the next phase would see the creek north of hole #2 expanded to 60 feet wide by 20 feet deep, allowing for an expanded water-holding capacity of 2.2 million gallons.