Water Challenge

Water is a necessity of life. Around 2016, I made a pledge with myself and the world not to drink bottled water. This was largely due to the injustices I felt surrounding access to clean drinking water in some First Nations communities, as well my disapproval of companies draining aquifers of centuries-old, clean earth water, bottling it and profiting from its sale.

At that time, Shoal Lake 40 First Nation had been on a bottled water advisory for a whopping 19 years, even though it, and the City of Winnipeg got water from the same source. Shoal Lake did not have a water treatment facility. I remember thinking that it wasn’t right that this community did not have access to clean water. There was a petition circulating and I and countless others signed it, asking for change. In 2021, 24 years after the water advisory began, the community finally got its water treatment plant. To read more on this issue, go to the following link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/shoal-lake-40-first-nation-drinking-water-advisory-1.6176167

Another issue of great import to me was that Nestle was robbing the Guelph area of aquifer water at the rate of approximately 4.7 million litres per day. Yes, you read that correctly. At a cost of about 1/20 of a cent per litre. To read more on this issue, go to the following link: https://canadians.org/wp-content/uploads/factsheet-nestle.pdf . I had a problem with Nestle profiting from our ground water, and also duping people into buying bottled water, even across the globe in the poorest of nations.

In Canada, if you live in a municipality, the water that comes out of your taps is treated and safe to drink, and is quite regulated by government. Bottled water is only tested on a volunteer-basis, which means, companies don’t have to test it. For more information on this issue, please go to the following link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/bottle-vs-tap-7-things-to-know-about-drinking-water-1.2774182

I drink tap water. I have made the pledge to myself and the world not to drink bottled water. I encourage you to do the same. Take the No Bottled Water Pledge. There are a variety of organizations through whom you can do this, this is just one of them: https://canadians.org/nowatertowaste/