The battle over bottled water is on, and cities and town across Canada are leading the way, turning the tide on water bottlers.  They are small victories, but quickly adding up.

The latest municipality to catch the wave, at the time of writing this, was Waterloo Region in southern Ontario.  But earlier this summer the City of London, Ontario passed a resolution to restrict the sale of bottled water at public facilities.  St. John’s Newfoundland, Nelson B.C. and others have passed similar restrictions and cities and towns across the country are considering the same, including Toronto later this fall.  

While the move to restrict the sale of bottled water by municipalities is largely symbolic, it sends a great message.  It promotes sustainable living.  It underlines a commitment to the environment, reducing resource consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and waste.  It puts faith back into municipal water systems.  It protects local sources of water.  And it promotes cost-effective government operations. 

If the environmental, health and economic arguments against bottled water are not clear, visit www.insidethebottle.org.   We really need to commend the dedicated people at the Polaris Institute (www.polarisinstitute.org) for holding the hands of municipal law makers as they travelled these turbulent waters. The bottled water industry is nothing to scoff at.  They are the heavy hitters of the beverage community.  Coke, Pepsi, Nestle.  These guys have been influencing governments for a long time and they make big waves with their deep pockets.  Good thing we know how to surf! 

Criticism has been minimal, but beverage company executives have been showing up to council meetings to plead their case.  While sales at many of these venues are miniscule for most water bottlers, they know this is could end up being a big loss for them.  It’s the first domino to fall and they know it.

We need all cities and towns to use their influence.  Get your community on board.  Call or write your councillors. Fill your reusable bottle with tap water and leave the bottled water on the shelf. 

Mike Layton, Environmental Defence

We’re having some strange weather this summer in southern Ontario.  Record rainfalls.  Localized flooding.  Reports of Tornadoes.  All this after near record snowfalls this winter. While most of this has done great things for my garden, the extreme weather events are wreaking havoc on lakes and rivers, and have briefly closed beaches in cities across Ontario, including Ottawa and Toronto.

This is why people don’t think they can enjoy beaches in our communities. Every once and a while a big storm event washes nasty chemicals and bacteria into the swimming areas, and the influx of water kicks up pollutants settled on the lake and riverbeds causing folks to run from the water.  Even if nature quickly deals with the problem naturally, our perceptions are often much more resistant to change and we stay away in fear.     

And this is only the beginning.  If climate change experts are right, then we can expect sever storms events to become more common and beach closures to be more frequent.  More severe storms bring intense rains. Intense rains over short periods of time contribute to higher levels of pollution into our waterways.  More pollution means increased health threats and fewer days at the beach.

It’s sad really. The one place (the beach) where most children experience one of Canada’s vast natural resources (freshwater) is being ruined by another one of nature’s most important gifts (rain).  But it’s not nature’s fault.  We are the ones contributing to the pollution and keeping our kids out of the water.  We’ve destroyed the natural flow of things and without action, the problem will only get worse.

And where is our government?  Last week in Ontario, a huge new infrastructure deal with the federal government was announced that does not mention critical wastewater and stormwater repairs and improvements.  

Action must be taken to protect our water and beaches, and limit closures that ruin summer days and our chance to bond with our rivers and lakes.  We can all do things at home that can help, but governments need to make the big investments and laws that will have a lasting impact.

Check with a local health authority to see if a beach is safe for swimming, or check out  www.blueflag.ca for a Blue Flag beach near you.  Blue Flag is the international standard for sustainable beaches tracking not only water quality, but the protection of natural ecosystems and providing onsite services and gives us one examples of how communities are working together to protect our beaches.

Mike Layton - Project Coordinator, Environmental Defence

Canada is blessed with plentiful, clean water when compared to many countries. But this does not mean that we are immune from problems found elsewhere.

Increasingly we are hearing about communities with unsafe drinking water and impending water shortages. Our cities dump billions of litres of raw sewage into our waterways. Development or resource extraction of some form has crept into virtually every major watershed in the country.

There is also another development, unnoticed by most Canadians: provinces such as Alberta are introducing water sales and trading schemes that will result in water flowing to the highest bidder, at considerable risk to the environment and social equality.

In short, despite the perception of an abundance of clean water, Canada is clearly experiencing signs of an impending freshwater crisis.

The roots of this crisis may well lie in the collectively held myth of water abundance. Canadians like to think they are blessed with abundant water; a quick glance at a map would seem to bear them out. From northern Quebec’s mighty rivers, to the Great Lakes, to the myriad rivers and lakes that carve up our North, we seem to be blessed with all the water we need.

But viewed from the perspective of renewable supplies — the amount of fresh water that is fully replaced in any given year by rain or snow, and that accumulates in our rivers and streams before flowing out to sea — Canada has just 7 per cent of the world’s total, an amount equal to its share of the world’s land mass. Not exactly the endless supply most Canadians .

Once framed this way, it is clear that we need to move swiftly to implement an intelligent and environmentally protective water governance model.

It is in the interest of all Canadians – and our duty to future generations – to stave off the rising spectre of chronic water shortages, frustrated development, and further environmental degradation seen in other regions across the globe.

Encouragingly, recent proposals have been put forward for National Drinking Water Standards have been endorsed by water experts, politicians and the media.

Passing this important legislation into law would be great first step, but we will need much, much more action from our governments as soon as possible. Or it is going to be a fight to the last drop.

Devon Page
Executive Director
Ecojustice (formerly Sierra Legal Defence Fund)
dpage [at] ecojustice.ca