Residents lament rising lake water at Manitou Beach, Sask.

With every drop of rain, Little Manitou Lake in central Saskatchewan grows a bit bigger and the beach for the local resort community gets smaller.

The lake has no natural outlet and the only way for water levels to drop is by evaporation. However, since about 2011, locals have noticed more rainy days and fewer dry spells.

According to Manitou Beach Mayor Gerry Worobec, the salt water lake is currently about three metres above its average level, a rise that has almost swallowed the beach area and led to the installation of unattractiveberms in an effort to contain the water.

Mother nature keeps bringing rain.- Fraser Murray

"It's a little disturbing," Ken Ellison, who has lived in the village for 12 years, said Friday. "It's a bit of a problem, for sure."

Draining a portion of the lake is not viewed as a viable option due to the nature of the water, which would be incompatible with other bodies of water.

"The water that comes into this lake, once it gets mixed up with the minerals and the salt, we can't pump it into creeks or rivers," Ellison noted. "We can't pump it onto farmland. So it's here to stay."

• Rising waters at Manitou Beach a concern, mayor says

Some have suggested reducing flows into the lake by diverting streams to other lakes.

"Everything we've seen so far has been a bit of a Band-Aid and mother nature keeps bringing rain and more rain," Fraser Murray, a village official, said. "We have to look at permanent solutions and the diversion is one of those solutions."

Ellison agrees, and said aid from the province would be welcome.

"As the water rises here every year there's no place to put it," he said. "It's unfortunate that the province doesn't look at this water here as unique as it is."

Patrick Boyle, a communications official with Saskatchewan's Water Security Agency, said the government has spent $3.5 million on a protective bermsince 2011, and has proposed adding onto the structure.

According to the agency, a diversion project would be a complicated undertaking. Boyle said the agency is not actively examining a diversion but should a formal request be made officials would consider it.