World Water Day:
Celebrating a public resource, now about those laws…

When my three year old and six month old see water they vibrate with excitement and want to jump right in. If they had their druthers they would stay in it until they were little prunes. They celebrate every time their toes are about to touch the water. Lucky for them they live in a country (and a region of the province) where water is relatively clean and relatively abundant, so they get many opportunities to celebrate. What they don’t understand yet is that our behaviours have direct impacts on the water resource and this has implications for others who may want to use the same resource.

When we treat water as a private resource, we disregard its fundamental nature and invariably impact others’ enjoyment and celebration. We might use it, pollute it and discard it, trusting that new high quality water is on its way down the stream. This in turn begs the question, how can we ensure we recognize water as a shared, common resource that benefits everyone? This is a timely question for those in government as they consult on various water issues around the province as part of their “water conversation.”

Read “World Water Day: Celebrating a public resource, now about those laws…” on the ELC blog.

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