Forget
the tanking economy and rising food costs; forget the Iranian nuclear arms
scare, sky-rocking emissions and everything in between. The most real threat for
humanity comes from something we often take for granted: our dwindling water
supply. This is something we frequently overlook: as Environment Canada states
on their website, Canada holds seven per cent of the world's fresh water but is
also one of the largest consumers of this precious resources.
Residents
of a large part of Canada can almost be forgiven for their lack of compassion
for the dry, arid regions present in the rest of the world. We are surrounded
by water, with lakes, rivers, and streams pumping an inexhaustible amount of
fresh water through pipes, out of our taps and down our throats. Unfortunately,
we make up a very small percentage of the world population. While we are
presently surrounded by H2O, the significant percentage of the global
population faces a daily struggle to obtain clean water.
GLOBAL
BACKFLOW
Much
like the basic biological make up of humans, the earth is made up of 70 per
cent water. Of that percentage, only three per cent of the Earth’s water is
drinkable, with 97 per cent remaining in our oceans. That meager three per cent,
however, has managed to act as our lifeline for as long as humankind has
existed on this planet. Our rivers, lakes, aquifers, streams and reservoirs
have allowed us to expand our civilizations well beyond the limit of
sustainability. Unfortunately, international corporations, agriculture and national
governments are exploiting what fresh water we have left.
It
is estimated that even in economically developed nations like the United
States, regions like southern California and Nevada could potentially run out
of fresh water within 20 to 50 years at the current rate of expansion.
Areas
like this often use a “toilet to tap” method of water recycling in which waste
water is pumped into aquifers, filtered, treated and pumped back out the tap.
The risk of contamination is high with many viruses and bacteria not being
eliminated by sanitization. These bugs cause between 500,000 and seven million
United States citizens to become sick from contaminated water each year.
Outside
of North America, 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe and clean drinking
water, leading to more than two million deaths every year directly related to
water, many of which are children. The documentary For Love of Water (FLOW) goes into detail about the
varying water situations around the world.
India:
In
countries such as India, what little fresh water they do have has often been
polluted and abused by multi-national corporations such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
In 2009, in Plachimada, India, a Coca-Cola bottling plant turned an entire city’s
drinking water toxic. Within six months, the water became ill-fit to drink or
bathe in, and the crops that the citizens of Plachimada grew with the water
became rancid and died.
Coca-Cola
also offered the farmers of Plachimada a “free bio-fertilizer” for their
coconut plantations which, when analyzed by a BBC study, showed toxic levels of
cadmium and lead. Only after a year of protest and public outcry did the India
government impose laws, which shut down the Coca-Cola bottling plant for good.
Bolivia:
In
Bolivia, in 1999, multinational water corporations like Thames Water, Vivendi,
and Suez have privatized municipal water supplies through the request of the
World Bank and the governments of this developing nation. Companies like Suez work
to set up water treatment plants in cities across Bolivia; however, the water
supply often goes unchecked and becomes contaminated and unfit to drink.
In
a country like Bolivia where one in ten children die before the age of five due
to drinking water, it seemed like a step in the right direction for its
citizens: “The objective of privatization was equipping the cities of La Paz
and El Alto with potable water and sewage. But during that process we have
evidence that in El Alto alone 208,000 people have been excluded from potable
water service,” claims Julian Perez of the Federation of Neighbours of El Alto,
in an interview during the documentary FLOW.
These
for-profit companies’ main goal is to sell cities own drinking water back to
its citizens, often for more money than they can afford. Fortunately, public
interest groups rallied around the nation of Bolivia and the poor citizens
within and drove out Suez in 2007.
AN
AFFLUENT STREAM
The
water industry has become the third-largest industry in the world, falling just
behind electricity and oil. With water prices continuing to rise and the threat
of disease from tap water becoming more apparent, the Western world has turned to
bottled water for drinking. Although most harmful pathogens enter your system
through bathing and showering, we often tend to disregard that fact. Last year
Americans purchased 31 billion litres of bottled water, costing $10.8 billion.
World
wide bottled water sales shot upwards to $100 billion. This water is often
unregulated, and the FDA claims that only one employee works to maintain the
safety of the bottled water industry. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
currently does not regulate 51 known water contaminants, and studies show
bottled water can contain chemicals, including arsenic, fertilizer, and
painkillers from the top ten bottled water companies in the world.
The
real trick comes with the fact that these bottled water companies, including
Nestle, have been accused of selling you tap water. Brands like Aquafina and
Dasani are not only hundreds of times more expensive then tap water, they are allegedly
tap water with added chemicals and bottled into carcinogen-leeching plastics,
often sold at prices higher than gasoline. The UN has estimated that the total
cost yearly to provide safe and clean drinking water for the entire world to be
approximately $10 billion; the yearly revenue provided to the bottled water
industry is three times that number.
With
Nestle owning over 70 per cent of American bottled water companies, including
Perrier and San Pellegrino, their thirst (no pun intended) for fresh water has
become detrimental to ecosystems. An average bottling plant pumps around 450
gallons of water per minute, which, unsurprisingly, can cause the very streams
they pump from to go dry in a matter of years. And as if that wasn’t enough,
Nestle allegedly pays no money for the water, because they have the right as
all citizens of America do to use tap water as they will.
IF
THE WELL RUNS DRY
So
where do we turn when the rivers have run dry, we’ve polluted our lakes, and tapped
our aquifers to depletion? The National Research Council has reported that in
Southern California, and in the surrounding area, steps have been taken in an
attempt to purify what was once considered wastewater. Las Vegas, a city with a
population of almost 600,000, empties all of its wastewater into Lake Mead, which
in turn provides a large amount of tap water for the rest of the South Western United
States.
Lake
Mead was formed from excess water retained by the creation of the Hoover Dam in
1936 and holds approximately 35.2 km of water. The water pumps into areas like
Southern California and Arizona and is drawn from taps of homes, containing on
average about five per cent wastewater in it, which can contain a lot of nasty
microbes. Scientists claim, however, that the five per cent of contaminants,
which include pharmaceuticals and hormones, are less dangerous than many
natural reservoirs and pose no serious health risks.
Even
if this is the case, Lake Mead’s water levels continue to rise and fall in
dramatic levels of excess and drought. It has been predicated that within 30
years, with current levels of growth, Lake Mead could drop its water levels by
up to 50 per cent. This would leave a large part of the southern United States
in a state of drought and potential famine.
The
National Research Council seeks to prevent this by sending the wastewater back
into the pipes of Americans: "Wastewater is a droughtproof supply. People
are always generating wastewater," Jorg Drewes of the NRC said in an interview
with the LA Times.
"That can be a very viable option, the committee felt, compared to
imported water and other options."
THE
CAMPUS AQUEDUCT
Fortunately
for Vancouver residents, the water that comes out of our taps is rated within
the cleanest and safest water in the world. It seems foolish to throw your
money into a vending machine for a bottle of Dasani water that was likely
bottled in Toronto or Quebec.
“In
Canada, there have been 29 separate recalls of 49 bottled water products since
January 2000 due to bacterial or chemical contaminants including Pseudomonas
aeruginosa, Bacillus cereus, and Arsenic [CFIA],” claims the Polaris Institute
in a report entitled, “The Urgent Need for Health and Environmental Regulation
in the Bottled Water Industry.”
The
Polaris Institute goes on to point out that the water that comes from your tap
is strictly monitored and regulated by provincial governments and is tested
every five hours, whereas bottled water has little to no regulation whatsoever
and is tested once every two and a half years, on average.
Such
health concerns have led many universities to not only raise awareness of these
risks, but to occasionally ban the sale of bottled water all together,
including forward-thinking Canadian schools like Vanier College in Montreal.
“We
do have water refill stations and we’re hoping to start a ‘Pro Tap Water’
Campaign,” says Heidi Anderson, the Environmental Issues Coordinator for the
Capilano Students’ Union. “We are also looking into getting the water tested to
show students that the water is essentially the same [as], if not better than,
bottled water.” There is a petition with the Canadian Federation of Students
for an anti-bottled water campaign, which can be signed in the CSU.
Unfortunately,
Capilano continues to maintain its vending machine contract with Coca Cola
which was renewed just last year – making it difficult to ban bottled water on
campus anytime in the near future.
WATER
CONTROVERSY FLOODS CITY HALL
As
far as cities go our rain-soaked city of Vancouver fares pretty well with water
consumption, which comes as no surprise, since we are surrounded by it.
However, as part of the Greenest City 2020 Action Plan, which the Vision
Vancouver government brought forward in Jul. 5, 2011, Vancouverites were encouraged
to reduce their consumption of fresh water through metered usage.
All
new family homes and duplexes require water usage meters installed to monitor a
household’s water consumption, a proposition proposed by city councillor Andrea
Reimer. Currently, all homes in Vancouver pay the same flat rate for water
utility; however, this seems unfair to Reimer.
“Right
now we all pay the same amount [in a flat utility fee], no matter how much
water you use in your house,” she said in an interview with the Georgia
Straight.
“The less people you have, generally speaking – though not universally – the less water you are going
to use, right?”
The
proposed meters would cost roughly $500 per household, which has caused a bit
of a stir among other city councillors. Opponents include the Non-Partisan
Association, which views the water usage meters as some sort of extra tax being
imposed by the city under the guise of creating a greener city.
Although
many developed cities use per-usage water metering as an effective way to
reduce consumption, George Affleck of the NPA sees it differently: “I
understand the conservation argument. The conservation argument is obvious, and
that’s why they say we should pass this motion. Well, actually I understand
preservation, but is the motion and these water meters actually going to
achieve the results you’re wanting to have? I think there are better ways to
spend that money,” he told the Straight.
A
POTABLE FUTURE
Besides
drinking wastewater from a reusable bottle, taxing consumers, and building
dams, there are other ways to protect our freshwater supplies. Many water
activists in India are pushing forward Water Health UV Filtration systems,
which use an electronic UV lamp to sterilize their water. These units are
self-sustaining and require only one or two employees to monitor the UV lamps
and water flowing underneath them.
The
cost of running a Water Health UV Filtration System, which provides each person
with ten litres of clean drinking water per day, is just $2USD per person annually,
a truly meager amount. Also, the money saved from medication and travel costs
imposed by diseases incurred
from
contaminated water is very high. Currently about 300,000 people have benefited
from this new technology in India, which is a drop in the bucket when viewed
against the people who need it (India has a population of over a billion
people), but still a step in the right direction.
Water
is also greatly wasted and exploited through mining practices across North
America. Fracking is a new type of mining method used to extract natural gas,
which uses millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals to
extract natural gas from shale beds across the United States. Not only is this
method wasteful, it is also extremely toxic and dangerous to any near by water
supply. Similar to Canada’s own tar sand “tailings”, the wastewater left behind
from such operations is very toxic, not to mention wasteful. Between two and
four barrels of water are used for every single barrel of oil removed from Canada’s
tar sands.
The
harsh reality of this crisis is that many areas of North America will soon
either experience water shortages, something they rarely experience, or that
the water they do consume will become highly treated or less safe.
//Colin Spensley, writer
//Graphics by Britta Bachus
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