Canada's Water Treatment Crisis
Safe Tap Water Is A Human Right; But Do All Canadians Have Access?
Sep 10, 2008
It's election time in Canada and voters do not seemed concerned about their water as an issue. However, many Canadians are deciding to buy bottled water rather than relying on tap water. Statistics Canada reported in 2006 that 30% of Canadians rely on bottled water and spend more than $500 million on a product they could readily take from their tap. One reason may be fear, real or imagined.
Cracks in the Safe Tap Water System
In March 2006, at an international water forum in Mexico, the Council of World Churches said safe drinking water should be a human right. But Canadian governments can't always sustain that right. For instance,
- Hamilton, Ont. admitted that it needs $500,000 more each year to maintain its safe water system
- In 2004 Ontario said it needed immediately $12 billion for water maintenance infrastructure, much of it over 100 years old, and $34 billion over the next 15 years.
- The federal government estimates that 90 people die from unsafe drinking water each year and 90,000 are sickened
- The Ontario Farm Environment Coalition claims that 34% of rural wells have high counts of E. coli bacteria and nitrates
- giardia or beaver fever, a bacteria found in drinking water affected 88% of Princeton, BC and in 2001, BC issued 304 boil water advisaries
Water Treatments
Most water treatments involve chlorination, ultra-violet rays, various filtrations, and ozonation. Not all methods are proving to be effective. In fact some may be dangerous.
Even though chlorination is still the most widely used disinfectant in water treatment, as early as 1995, scientists were saying that chlorine combines with organic material in water to form organo-chlorides or chloromines like trihalomethanes (THMs), which cause cancer. 13% of bladder and colon cancers in Ontario were attributable to chloromines which bio-magnify (the progressive build up of persistent substances) in the water.
The American Journal of Epidemiology (Nov. 9/2005) reported that a study of 27 Massachusetts communities from 1999-2001, all drawing their drinking water from the same provider disinfecting with chlorine, showed as much as 60% higher risk of impaired fetal growth because of THMs.
Ozonation is gaining popularity. Concerned about some of the long term problems associated with chlorination, Boston, Mass. converted its water treatment to ozone, spending $340 million over 6 years. Montreal, (www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html) is hoping to spend $200 million to add an ozonation facility to its water treatment plant.
Action
There are several municipal elections and a federal election on October 14, 2008. Canadians need to be asking the politicians about safeguards for safe tap water. Bottled water ironically leaves a bigger carbon foot print and siphons money from needed treatment improvement. It's time to raise the water pressure for real solutions to a tap water crisis.
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