Global Campaigns News

Canada: It's time to turn on the water tap in Vancouver

Georgia Straight. By Tony Clarke and Joe Cressy, Polaris Institute -

The municipal movement to phase-out the sale and distribution of bottled water on city premises is rapidly growing. What is truly significant about these municipal initiatives is not just that they are phasing out an environmentally harmful product, but that they are actively working to ensure access to tap water in all city facilities.

In the past two years, Canadians have renewed their commitment to public water services. Across the country, municipalities, schools and universities, faith-based organizations, restaurants, and unions have stood up for Canada’s public water services by restricting the provision and sale of bottled water. Increasingly across the country, municipal leaders are showing that there is a strong political will for reinvestments in public water services. To date, 27 municipalities from six provinces have implemented restrictions on bottled water and gone “back to the tap”.

In British Columbia, Metro Vancouver is already way ahead on this issue. Last fall, Metro Vancouver initiated its Tap Water Campaign with the goal of increasing the consumption of tap water by reducing sales of bottled water by 20 percent by 2010.

In Canada, municipal water systems are among the safest and strongest in the world. Meanwhile, bottled water costs much more, is less regulated, consumes more energy, and releases more harmful toxics. However, access to municipal drinking water is dwindling with new buildings constructed without water fountains and older ones decommissioning existing fountains. Now is the time to issue strong calls to all levels of government for greater public access to free potable water and a wholesale reinvestment in water infrastructure and services.

Today, representatives of bottled water companies, such as Coca-Cola and Nestlé Waters Canada, often make the argument that residents should have the choice whether to buy bottled water in municipal facilities. They also claim that if people cannot buy bottled water, that they will instead buy one of their unhealthy sugar drinks.

Well, let’s be clear. First, Coca-Cola sure doesn’t sell Pepsi in its offices, so why should the City of Vancouver sell bottled water in its facilities when it already produces drinking water out of the tap. Second, the real choice is between access to a water fountain or buying a bottled product. Nobody is saying that Vancouver residents will not be able to buy bottled water in stores, but the city has a responsibility to promote public tap water, ensure public access through water fountains, and curb bottle water sales in municipal facilities.

It’s becoming clear that the recent love affair with bottled water has reached its limits. Bottled water’s 15 minutes are up, the marketing scam is out of the closet, and the tap is back. The simple fact is that there is no “green” solution to bottled water. While it might serve a function during natural disasters or other contingencies, it is no alternative to the tap.

Municipalities in Canada are making the right choice to support public water infrastructure and to increase city residents’ access to clean, convenient, and environmentally sound drinking water—the only question now is whether Vancouver will be next.

Tony Clarke is the author of the book Inside the Bottle: Exposing the Bottled Water Industry and executive director of the Polaris Institute.

Joe Cressy is the campaign coordinator of the Polaris Institute in Ottawa and a member of the Inside the Bottle campaign on bottled water