Many Albertans will have water on the brain next week as local activists gear up for World Water Day.
March 22 is World Water Day, an annual event held by the United Nations to draw attention to the importance of freshwater. This year's theme is water and urbanization.
The event coincides with Canada Water Week, which runs from March 14 to 22, and Edmonton Water Week, which goes from March 21 to 28. Each involves a small flood of events meant to get people thinking about their taps and rivers.
Water is part of almost everything we do and have, says Bob Sandford, the Epcor chair for the UN's Water for Life Decade in Canada and a Canmore resident, and it's under pressure. The South Saskatchewan River basin is tapped out in terms of water allocations, and the North Saskatchewan is getting closer due to climate change and industrial expansion. "These concerns are surfacing everywhere."
A matter of rights
Climate change, rapid development and growing populations are all parts of the world's water problem, Sandford says. "We have a billion people on Earth who don't have reliable access to drinking water each day and two billion who don't have sanitation."
Water shortages directly affect human rights, says Renée Vaugeois, executive director of the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights in Edmonton. Girls in Uganda spend so much time fetching fresh water, for example, that many don't have time to get an education.
"It's not just something that's in Africa," she says. "We have issues here as well." Oilsands development has polluted the Mackenzie River, and may be putting the health and traditions of aboriginals at risk.
Water pollution can also affect the health of rivers near Edmonton, notes Glenn Isaac, executive director of the North Saskatchewan Riverkeeper. "There's an ever-increasing amount of human usage of pharmaceuticals," he notes, which affects all life in it and downstream from us.
Isaac's group has asked environmental toxicologist Greg Goss of the University of Alberta to hold a free talk on the effects of those chemicals on fish in the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton on March 21.
Vaugeois says she sees water as a way to bring people together for a common cause. Her group is holding an online conference open to St. Albert and Sturgeon County high schools on water and human rights this March 22, one that will lead into the bigger Global Youth Assembly water conference this July.
A new water ethic
Sandford will speak on the need for a new water ethic this March 17 at the Royal Alberta Museum as part of Canada Water Week.
"We have a myth in this country of limitless abundance," Sandford says, which encourages wasteful behaviour. Albertans have about the same quality of life as Europeans, yet use about 2.3 times as much water per person each year — 320 litres compared to 140.
Albertans need to recognize the value of water and the effort that goes into producing it. Alberta's Water for Life strategy is a step in the right direction, Sandford says, as it links clean water to the economy and creates watershed groups to oversee rivers and lakes.
"You should treat water like you treat power," he says — as something to be saved, not wasted.
Edmonton puts a lot of work into producing high quality drinking water, Sandford notes — work that's wasted when people buy bottled. "Our love affair with bottled water is a triumph of marketing over common sense," he says. "Why are you spending a thousand times more for what you get for free?"
Visit canadawaterweek.com for a full list of events.
