World Water Day challenges people to act
Water conservation is a simple way to participate in the green movement
With the explosion of the Green movement out of Hollywood (via Al Gore and his "Inconvenient Truth"), it has become a world-wide initiative to make our Earth a more beautiful, healthy place.
One vital, simple way in which this can be done is through conservation of water.
March 22 marks what is called World Water Day. Two local chapters of the Council Of Canadians are supporting a day of action on this issue.
The Moncton chapter is planning a presentation that they will present to city council on that day. Council of Canadians member in this area, Anne Levesque says,
"We have a presentation planned about the work that we did last summer with water. We will be presenting it to the city council in Moncton."
This presentation will act as a teaching tool for city council members on how the city of Moncton can discourage citizens from drinking bottled water.
"There are simple ways that the city of Moncton could discourage people from drinking bottled water," Anne says. "It has to do with things that are done in other cities."
"For example, at a special event, like Run For the Cure, where everyone brings bottled water, instead there could be mobile units which plug into taps, so that people can drink the water and refill their bottles from that."
"We should be using our own public water instead of buying private water," she adds.
This discouragement of purchasing bottled water is the main goal of the Council of Canadians, who Anne says "look at the big picture" in terms of water conservation.
"We need to safeguard our public water because right now big corporations want to make water a commodity," she states. Anne also says that right now the government needs to look at this big picture.
"We lobby governments because we think we should conserve water here instead of buying it from elsewhere," she says.
"Canada should have a water policy. If we keep going the way we are, there won't be enough water, so the government needs to look at this serious issue."
While it may seem like a tall order for residents of Moncton and surrounding communities to save our earth's water supply, everyone can do their part by simply cutting back.
"We use a lot of water uselessly - washing cars, flushing toilets too much, and more," Anne stresses. "These are the types of things that need to be brought up to the city."
One major issue that the Council of Canadians plans to address is the amount of water being wasted by industry.
"Another way water is being wasted is by industry," Anne says. "For example, the tar-sands use pure clean water to make oil, and once that water is used, it will never be clean again."
"They are saying it is worth it to get oil, wasting our most precious resource," she points out. "We don't want to be in a situation where only rich people have water."
"In South Africa, for example, some families spend 20 per cent of their income to buy water."
These issues will all be brought to city council in Moncton by the Council of Canadians.
In the meantime, while the Council of Canadians' main goal does not include presenting tips to the community on how to preserve water, there are a few well-known suggestions that everyone can do on a daily basis to decrease the amount of water they use.
These include small changes, like turning off the water while brushing your teeth or washing your hair, taking shorter showers, and washing your dishes manually instead of using a dishwasher, just to name a few.
For more information on World Water Day and what local people are doing to celebrate, visit the Council of Canadians website at www.canadians,org and click on World Water Day.
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