Four research centres at the University of Saskatchewan are getting nearly $170 million in funding, and the work done at one centre is necessary for understanding and addressing a water crisis in Canada, its director says. "Water problems we are facing in Canada seems to be getting more severe. Costs of droughts and floods have reached about $40 billion since the turn of the century. It was just one or two billion before that in Canadian history," John Pomeroy, director at Global Water Futures Observatories, said in an interview.