Toss the bottled water

We Canadians love our water, or so we say. In national polls we’ve declared it our most valuable natural resource. We just wrapped up Canada Water Week. We’re perfectly happy to celebrate the abundance of fresh, drinkable water in lakes and rivers across the country.

Yet somehow, when we’re looking to quench our thirst, an awful lot of us reflexively reach for bottled water, not that same fresh, drinkable water available at a tiny fraction of the price simply by turning on the tap.

Our overreliance on bottled water is a waste of money and a detriment to the environment. It’s time we resolved to end it.

Astonishingly, Canadians spend about $2.5 billion on it every year. We guzzle 2.5 billion litres, or more than 71 litres a year for every man, woman and child — three and half times the amount we drank 20 years ago. This, despite having some of the cleanest drinking water in the world.

To be sure, there are parts of Canada, in First Nations communities and remote locales, where tap water is not safe to drink. But the vast majority of people in urban areas have nothing to worry about.

Of course, the worst slight against bottled water is that it’s a needless burden on the environment.

Making the move back to tap water will require making it more easily available in public. That means bringing back the old drinking fountain.

We need city staff to ensure our parks and other public spaces have working fountains. Our schools should have more fountains and fewer bottle-dispensing vending machines. Private buildings such as malls and offices should also make drinking water readily available.

Governments are quite good at helping us break our bad habits, as we’ve seen with cigarettes. Our reliance on bottled water is no different. It’s time to make the clean, fresh, drinkable water that we’re so keen to celebrate a greater part of our lives.