Manitoba will spend roughly $100 million on an emergency channel to lower water levels on bloated Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin.

Preliminary work has begun on an eight kilometre channel to take water from Lake St. Martin to Big Buffalo Lake, where it will flow naturally into the Dauphin River and eventually into Lake Winnipeg.

The province said Tuesday it aims to have construction of the emergency channel — 100 metres wide by about 8 metres deep — complete by the fall of 2011, to reduce the risk of more flooding next spring. But Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger said there is no guarantee the work will be complete by the fall. "The work will proceed under very difficult conditions, in a remote location, that is essentially an underwater bog right now," he said. "There are no guarantees with these difficult conditions."

As well, the province is expected to leave the Fairford River control structure open all winter, to help reduce water levels on the lakes.

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Communities situated near the two lakes have suffered due to record high water levels. In the case of Lake Manitoba, it reached levels unseen in more than 50 years. Nearly 2,000 people have been forced from their homes and cottages and an estimated 700 properties destroyed.

Through much of the spring, Lake Manitoba was being fed by floodwaters from the bulging Assiniboine River — water that originated in Saskatchewan and Western Manitoba that was channeled through into Lake Manitoba north through the Portage Diversion.

The province said that the flood risk will not increase on Lake Winnipeg as a result of the emergency channel. But the new project will handle outflows of up to 9000 cubic feet per second to help drain the two lakes. About 150 people and 50 pieces of earth moving equipment will work on the project, excavating about 25 million cubic metres of earth to complete the channel, the province said in a news release.

The province is also considering a new bypass channel around the north side of the Fairford River control structure to further reduce levels on Lake Manitoba.

Leading hydro-technical and geotechnical firms AECOM and Manitoba’s KGS Group were contracted to provide engineering advice and to work with provincial government engineers to "rapidly develop" the emergency relief channels on Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin, Premier Greg Selinger said earlier.