Community & Labour Action

Canada: It's safer to drink water from a tap than bottle

- The Ottawa Citizen. Letter to Editor by Eric Schiller -

Re: It's clear that bottled water is precious, March 21.

There is no argument that bottled water in certain situations has a role to play. Three situations that come to mind are during natural disasters, temporary breakdowns of the municipal tap water system and travelling in a place where safe, piped water is not available.

However the current trend, which is supported and encouraged by the bottled water industry, is a much different situation. The bottled water industry is not going to be satisfied with supplying water only for these emergency situations. To increase profits, they increasingly encourage people to drink all of their water from bottles. They are succeeding.

One in five North Americans does drink all of their water from throwaway plastic bottles. Part of the strategy is to highlight failings of the municipal water supply systems. The Walkerton disaster caused a bonanza for the bottled water industry. But Walkerton was an aberration, caused by political tax cuts to the water inspection sector, and ignorance and incompetence of the operators.

As a whole, we have piped water systems that are the result of decades of development and improvement. Problems in the system are detectable, and correctable. Water in the systems is very carefully regulated, more so than water that comes in plastic bottles.

Fortunately many cities are waking up to the dangerous environmental impact of the widespread use of bottled water. San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago are just some of the American cities that are promoting the use of their high quality municipal water. To set an example, they are banning the use of bottled water in their city functions.

The British government is promoting municipal tap water to resist the trend of excessive use of bottled water. Sooner or later, the city of Ottawa will need to face up to this issue.

Eric Schiller,

Ottawa