Protecting the resource itself is fine, but fight bottled water by not buying it

BOTTLED WATER IS UNDER increasing scrutiny for the harm it does our environment. Throw in the pittance bottlers pay for Ontario water and the fact the debate involves Nestlé, one of the most-hated multinationals on the planet, and efforts to restrict groundwater extraction should be that much easier.

Not easy, however, given the globalized, corporatist status quo, which reaches down right to the local level.

Case in point, the effort by Wellington Water Watchers to deny the Swissbased food giant access to the public resource that is water under places such as Aberfoyle. The group is currently pressing the province to turn down the company’s bid for another 10-year permit to draw millions of litres daily from the aquifer there. Pointing out that the company already draws large volumes from another site in the county, Hillsburgh, they also want to block plans for another well on Middlebrook Road out Elora way.

“Enough is enough. We are in solidarity with all those around the globe who are standing together to say ‘no’ to corporate profiteering from this life giving source – our precious water,” the group says in a call to action for its ‘Water for Life, Not Profit’ campaign. “We will be requesting no more than a two-year permit in Aberfoyle in order to assist a phase out of this permit and will also will be requesting no new well at Middlebrook.”

The organization is going to need more than a little bit of public outcry to have any hope of influencing government policy, which is decidedly corporate friendly.

While the environmental arguments are compelling, the real attention-getter is the ridiculously small fees companies such as Nestlé pay for accessing what is a public resource: just $3.71 for every million litres of water taken. That’s three ten-thousands of a cent per litre. Try comparing that to your own bi-monthly water bill.

Given the environmental impacts and the small return, it’s easy to see why groups such as Water Watchers aren’t keen on governments continuing to allow companies unfettered access to public water.

Of course, there’d be no need to worry about permits if there didn’t exist a market for bottled water. While growth has slowed somewhat, last year sales in Canada were still up three per cent to 2.5 billion litres, providing revenues of $2.4 billion. Nestlé Waters of Canada accounted for about 30 per cent of the retail sales, the largest single player, to give you an idea of the company’s reach.

Why is that we now feel compelled to have a beverage, water or otherwise, within reach at all times?

Argue about the quality of tap water versus bottled water, or about the convenience factor, but there’s got to be a reason why we’re drinking the stuff in the amounts we do, all the while creating growing piles of discarded singleuse plastic bottles. The environmental impact is compounded by the health risks associated with the plastics used to make the containers.

Experts tell us our drinking water is safe, tested far more often and rigourously than the bottled variety. In fact, much of what we buy is simply municipal tap water that’s been filtered, bottled and sold for thousands of times what the company paid the municipality.

Does bottled water taste better than what comes out of the tap? Usually. The stuff coming out of the taps in Waterloo Region varies in taste, typically lessthan-stellar. My solution is to filter the stuff used for drinking. A reusable bottle is handy if I need to take it with me, which, really, isn’t as often as many people seem to think it is.

There was a time when nobody carted water around with them, much like we were able to leave the house without a phone on our hip.

As a kid, I would spend all day outside in the summertime with only the occasional visit to a drinking fountain (devices banned for many years, but starting to make a comeback). I was never at risk of dehydration, playing in the neighbourhood park, not the middle of a remote desert. I lived to tell the tale. A decade or so ago, we would have laughed if someone said we’d spending a dollar or two or three or more for a little bottle of water … and that we’d be buying them by the ton. Today, there’s a multi-billion worldwide market.

Despite the assurances tap water is just fine, we’re not convinced. There are the taste, smell and appearance issues: our senses are in conflict with the official party line.

This relates to the hodgepodge of chemicals in our water. Miniscule amounts, to be sure – levels the government says are safe. Unfortunately, experience tells us that today’s assurances become tomorrow’s apologies: from food additives to asbestos, we’ve seen further study reveal what was previously “safe” become unhealthy or even carcinogenic.

Because it’s a straightforward product, we’re able to better monitor the quality of what comes out of our taps, unlike packaged water.

While there are minute traces of contaminants such as heavy metals in our water, the allowable levels really aren’t a health risk, experts suggest. For instance, you would need to drink a million glasses of water to equal the mercury in one serving of fish.

That doesn’t mean we should get complacent. There are emerging concerns about the impact of chemicals associated with our use of pharmaceuticals and personal-care products. For example, large amounts of estrogen associated with birth control pills have ended up in the environment, leading to the discovery of male fish with ovaries.

Ideally, we would start cutting back on the use of these chemicals – use natural cleaners and cosmetics, for instance – while working on new technology to treat our waste, though we ought not to count too much on technological fixes in order to avoid changing our lifestyles.