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Canada Celebrates World Water Day
Mar
22
2011
In Canada, World Water Day is a really mixed sort of day to mark.
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In Canada, World Water Day is a really mixed sort of day to mark.
We have the most freshwater of just about any nation on the planet so there’s lots to celebrate, but we also waste more than just about everyone else. And, while we have lots of water, only a small amount of it is actually renewable – meaning we risk over-consuming what we have and dipping into nature’s reserves.
It’s a bit like someone who inherits a whole lot of cash and then blows it all in casinos and nightclubs.
But recent news gives some reason to hope we're smartening up – over the last couple of decades we’ve been making some lifestyle changes that better reflect the value of our inheritance. A Stats Canada report that came out in early March shows that in 2009 nearly two thirds of us had low-flow showerheads compared to only 28% in 1991, and 42% of us had low volume toilets versus less than 10% twenty years ago.
So it seems that Canadians actually do want to spend water more wisely, and save wherever it's convenient.
But, before anyone gets too smug, we still use about 320 litres of water a day each, or nearly twice what the average European does. Just yesterday a new poll came out saying that three quarters of us actually use toilets as garbage disposals for hair, bugs, cigarette butts and rotten food. What’s even worse, some of our biggest cities and smallest communities continue to dump raw sewage into the nearest water body, and urban sprawl kills the ability of the land to clean car oil and other nasty stuff from storm run-off before it hits the lakes and rivers we drink from.
So Canada, while we should be proud of reducing water waste over the last 20 years, we also need to recognize that there’s still a long way to go before we can say we're responsible with our wealth, what with nearly all of us are using about 20 litres a go to rid our homes of spiders and mouldy bread.
Maybe this World Water Day Canadians will decide it’s time to cut out the crazy unsustainable party, and start making wise investments that will keep us water wealthy for a long time, and maybe then we'll finally stop using our lakes, rivers and oceans like toilets.
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