Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor,
On any given day, more than 1,000 boil-water advisories are in effect across the country, many in indigenous communities. This, in a country that has one-fifth of the world’s fresh water, a quarter of its remaining wetlands and its longest coastline.
More than 20,000 Canadians die prematurely every year because of exposure to environmental hazards, and the total cost of pollution in Canada is more than $100 billion a year. More than 80 per cent of the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality relating to chemical contaminants provide less protection for public health than other industrialized nations.
Clearly the problem is not with supply but with the lack of good policy and legislation. Canada is the only G8 country without legally enforceable drinking-water-quality standards at the national level. I hope other Canadians will urge the federal government to introduce an environmental bill of rights that will recognize, protect and fulfil our human right to clean water.
Together, ordinary people can take extraordinary action to protect the people and places we love.
As citizens, we should be guaranteed access to environmental information, public participation in decision-making and effective legal remedies when human and environmental health are threatened or damaged.
Water is a fundamental human right. Canada joined the international consensus and recognized the right to water at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in 2012. We must live up to that commitment here at home.
It’s time for the federal government to implement the right to clean water in Canada by passing an environmental bill of rights that respects, protects and fulfils our right to a healthy environment, including the right to clean water.
Donna Elliott, Owen Sound
