Saskatchewan's Water Security Agency has provided the final payment for flood protection efforts to the Town of Lampman and the Roy's Lake Watershed Association.

More than $640,000 was provided to Lampman through the Emergency Flood Damage Reduction Program (EFDRP) for construction of berms and a storm water lift station that will protect the town from flooding, stemming from last year's record water levels.

“The Town was responsible for all the costs, and we had to submit bills,” said Mayor Scott Greening. “We had to follow certain criteria to be eligible for this money, and now we've received new moneys that were promised by the government.”

Now that they have received the money, the Town of Lampman can start to focus on day-to-day operations, infrastructure and other civic issues, he said.

The Water Security Agency (formerly the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority) has committed nearly $6 million to municipalities in the Lampman area since 2011, including the $640,000 for the Town of Lampman, to deal with flood protection and mitigation efforts as a result of the record amounts of precipitation in 2010 and 2011.

The rest of the money has been directed towards the municipalities that are involved with the Roy's Lake association. A lot of farmhouses in the area still aren't accessible or liveable, Greening said, and much work remains to reduce the amount of water in the area.

Greening said water levels at the northwest edge of the community seems to be diminishing, thanks to drainage through a trench that has moved the water eastward, as well as evaporation. But the water isn't moving eastward now, and hasn't been for some time.

“We're just hoping that through the winter we don't get too much snow, and then we'll wait and see,” said Greening.

The water levels have dropped between three feet and three-and-a-half feet, he said, but there's still about six feet of water in the northwest corner.