Funding to rehabilitate close to a quarter of Nova Scotia’s aging dikes threatened by rising sea levels is being announced today in the Annapolis Valley.

The province and Ottawa will share $114 million in costs of improving over 64 kilometres of dikes and their aboiteaux – sluices under the dikes that allow water out at low tide.

Bernadette Jordan, the federal minister of rural economic development, says the projects will help prevent the flooding of wineries, historical and world heritage sites, Indigenous communities and over 20,000 hectares of farmland.

Ottawa says the spending will help protect over 60 towns and communities on the western coast of Nova Scotia and along Highway 101 from rising seas and powerful storms expected to batter the coast.

The money to be spent over the next decade will improve causeways and other structures along Highway 101 – the main highway to the Annapolis Valley – to help protect the town of Windsor.

A study by a team of geographers at Saint Mary’s University has indicated that about 70 per cent of the 241 kilometres of dikes in the province could be overtopped in a severe tidal surge coming up the Bay of Fundy.

The funds for improving the dike system had already been booked in the province’s capital budget, with the first rehabilitation project beginning this year near Nappan, N.S.

Jordan made the announcement in Grand Pre, near a site where Acadians first constructed dikes by hand in the 17th century, creating fertile marshlands.

“Rising sea levels and coastal (flooding) have the potential to create catastrophic consequences,” she said in prepared remarks.

A recent federal report on climate change projected that as the coast continues to subside and oceans warm, Atlantic Canadian coasts could see up to a metre of sea level rise over the next century.

When combined with powerful storms and tidal surges, scientists are warning that dikes last upgraded over a half century ago won’t suffice to protect existing roads, homes and farms.

Jordan called the investments an, “example of how planning ahead can help mitigate the costs associated with extreme weather events in the future and get communities back on their feet sooner.”

“We will make sure our communities can not only withstand extreme weather due to climate change, but thrive and prosper for generations to come,” she said.

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