NAWAPA (North American Water and Power Alliance) and the GRAND Canal (Great Recycling and Northern Development Canal) were both ambitious, but very different, water redistribution mega-schemes proposed for North America. They shared the same underlying goal—moving freshwater from water-rich Canadian regions southward or inland to supply drier and more populated areas—but they differed significantly in geography, mechanism, and scope.cawaterlibrary+3
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | NAWAPA | GRAND Canal |
|---|---|---|
| Originator | Ralph M. Parsons Company (USA) | Tom Kierans (Canada) |
| First Proposed | Early 1960s | Late 1950s |
| Geographic Focus | Yukon, Alaska, and BC rivers—western Canada and US | James Bay, Hudson Bay, eastern Canada |
| Main Concept | Divert large Arctic and subarctic rivers using massive dams and reservoirs; route water via the Rocky Mountain Trench and south to the US and Mexico, plus some eastward to the Great Lakes | Build dikes across James Bay to isolate and desalinate it, turning it into a freshwater basin; then pump and canal freshwater south to the Great Lakes and potentially western US and Canadian prairies |
| Major Infrastructure | 369 projects including dams, artificial lakes, tunnels, pumping stations, and a new “super-river" in Rocky Mountain Trench | 160+ km sea dike, reservoir in James Bay, extensive pumping/canal network crossing Canadian Shield to the Great Lakes |
| Annual Water Volume | Up to 158 million acre-feet (various estimates) watershedsentinel+1 | Equivalent to 2.5x the flow over Niagara Falls from James Bay; proposal to transfer 20% of captured James Bay freshwater archive+1 |
| Distribution Areas | US West and Southwest, Canada (Prairies), northern Mexico, Great Lakes basin yourstory+1 | Great Lakes basin, possibly western Canada, Great Plains of US and Canada archive+1 |
| Purposes | Water supply (municipal, agricultural, industrial), hydroelectricity, navigation watershedsentinel+2 | Water supply stabilization for Great Lakes, possible export to water-scarce US Midwest/West witpress+2 |
| Status | Never built; faded after 1970s due to environmental, political and financial issues yourstory+1 | Never built; failed environmental assessment, remains “long-term agenda” for some witpress+1 |
Additional Notes
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Both proposals would have required international agreements, unprecedented engineering, huge capital investment, and would have caused massive environmental and potentially social disruption.witpress+2
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The NAWAPA plan was more transcontinental and focused on moving water across long distances, including major flows to US and Mexico, while the GRAND Canal focused on maximizing and managing runoff from James Bay mainly for Canadian and Great Lakes users, with secondary potential “export” to the US.archive+5
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GRAND Canal and NAWAPA could have been technically linked.ciel
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Both sparked debates over sovereignty, indigenous rights, climate risks, and continental resource management—these debates echo into the present.yourstory+3
In summary, NAWAPA and the GRAND Canal represent North America’s most ambitious, and controversial, visions of managed freshwater redistribution, but neither progressed beyond planning and advocacy stages due to their scale and associated risks.watershedsentinel+3
- https://cawaterlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/NAWAPA-Brochure.pdf
- https://web.archive.org/web/20151023050441/https:/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Recycling_and_Northern_Development_Canal
- https://www.witpress.com/Secure/elibrary/papers/WRM05/WRM05039FU.pdf
- https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/InterbasinWater_NAFTA_1993.pdf
- https://watershedsentinel.ca/articles/site-c-nawapa/
- https://yourstory.com/2025/06/1-trillion-dollar-mega-project-save-america
- https://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/PH2-1-13-2007E.pdf
- http://sisis.nativeweb.org/sov/oh11dam.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ComparisonGCNA-NAWAPA1.gif
- https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/206jwr/map_comparing_great_recycling_and_northern/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Water_and_Power_Alliance
- https://pugwashgroup.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/events_Water_2008-Water-TurningonCanadasTapApr08%5B1%5D.pdf
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwHRfoNAnsI
- https://johnfirth.ca/blog/f/nawapa-grandiose-genius-grotesque-monstrosity-or-both
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canal_(Ireland)
- https://sova.si.edu/record/nmah.ac.1052
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Canal
- https://www.jstor.org/stable/40568376
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Surrey_Canal
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_export
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