World Water Day 2017

Enjoying the view at Britannia Beach in Ottawa

It’s World Water Day and for most people in Canada, it’s a day when most of us realize how lucky we are to live in a country with a lot of fresh water.

Simply turn on the tap and you have access to as much clean water as you want. 

Unfortunately, not all Canadians have that same privilege.

Currently, there are 96 long-term drinking water advisories and 31 short-term drinking water advisories affecting First Nations communities below the 60th parallel, according to the federal government.

The Trudeau government has pledged to end long-term drinking water advisories on public systems on reserves within five years. 

In Ottawa, the 2016 average amount of water drawn from the Ottawa River was 308.2 million litres/day, according to a spokesperson for the City of Ottawa water services, in an email interview. This represents the combined amount of water taken from the Britannia and Lemieux Island water treatment plants for drinking water ‎requirements.

In 2016 the City of Ottawa treated and discharged to the river an average of 394 million litres/day. When the water is returned to the Ottawa River, its levels of bacteria, phosphorus and organics are far below all limits set by the plant’s operating permit, according to the spokesperson.

Sadly, the city’s antiquated sewage system cannot cope with heavy rainfall and that has resulted in many combined sewage/wastewater dumps into the Ottawa River before it can be treated, resulting in beach closures.

The Ottawa River Action Plan was enacted to help with this. Read more about it here.

Want to make a difference and protect your water supply? Be aware of your water footprint and try to reduce how much water you consume; reduce pesticide and fertilizer use; don’t throw harmful products like oil down the drain; buy locally produced products that take environmental conditions into account and choose agricultural products that have minimal water requirements.