Clean water should be a right

As a citizen of this wonderful country, I know we are blessed beyond measure by the generous number of rivers and lakes that provide us with that most basic of necessary elements, fresh water.

Many other countries envy us and covet this richly enabling resource.

I was horrified to learn that hundreds of our communities have to boil their drinking water — and the fact that many of them are indigenous communities is all the more shameful. Why is not the right to clean drinking water written into our Charter of Rights and Freedoms? We call our federal government to deal with this priority need.

When one of my children went to South Africa, our relatives there were horrified that she let the tap run while she was brushing her teeth. I had not taught her otherwise, unaware of Canada’s giftedness and the pressing need for water in countries like South Africa.

I was guilty of being one of the careless users of water here. But no longer.

Now I am convinced and committed to be one of those, who along with David Suzuki, our national treasure, determined to use our resources wisely and sparingly, can tend it well so that all of us, whether human or other creatures, and/or plants who share this wonderful country with us can all pass it on as such to the following generations.

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.

Clare Hallward, Westmount