Student Action

Canada: Bottled-water ban at U of W

Winnipeg Free Press. By Geoff Kirbyson -

Part of overall green strategy: Axworthy

THE University of Winnipeg is putting bottled water on ice.
The downtown campus has banned the sale of water in plastic bottles, becoming the first post-secondary institution in Canada to adopt the eco-friendly policy.

In a referendum question put to the student body last week, nearly 75 per cent of voters said they supported the elimination of bottled water from the school's cafeterias and vending machines.

Vinay Iyer, president of the U of W Students' Association, said bottled water will be phased out over the next few months and the transformation will be complete by the start of the fall semester.

"Water has been commoditized. It should be free instead of corporations making money off it. (The sale of bottled water) undermines the public's trust in free water," he said, noting the U of W followed the lead of Washington University, which recently implemented a similar ban.

About 38,400 plastic water bottles are sold at the U of W each year. To encourage students to change their ways, reusable bottles will be provided to incoming first-year students this fall as part of their orientation package. (The costs will be shared by the student union and administration.)

Lloyd Axworthy, president and vice-chancellor of the U of W, said the school's administration imposed the ban because it wanted to reflect student concerns as well as continue to be a green, trail-blazing university.

"We have to examine every decision we make through the lens of how it contributes to a sustainable environment," he said. "We have a responsibility as a university to show the way and give our students facilities that walk the talk. We're not just teaching it, we're living it."

Aside from having to take care of their own water container, the transition should be relatively seamless for students, said Megan Fultz, an executive member of Oxfam Winnipeg. It has set up booths at both the U of W and the University of Manitoba offering the water equivalent of the Pepsi Challenge. The majority of taste testers haven't been able to distinguish between the bottled product and what comes out of the water fountain.

"The challenge has proven that there really is no difference. Commercializing water is really not necessary in a nation where we have such easy access to public water," she said.

Fultz said her organization wants to raise awareness of how the Western world is wasting money on unnecessary luxury goods while those in poor countries have to fight to find drinkable water.

"The bottled water is a $100-billion industry. One-fifth of that (cost) could provide access to clean water and sanitation facilities for the entire world," she said.

Axworthy said the water initiative is part of the U of W's comprehensive sustainability management system. It also committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the short-term goal of making the school compliant under the Kyoto Protocol and a long-run objective of achieving zero net emissions.

geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca