Summary of the article
Canada has one-fifth of the world’s fresh water, points out World Wildlife Fund Canada—and the third largest supply, notes the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. Yet that is only 7% of the world’s renewable fresh water supply, and “the perception that Canada is blessed with an abundance of freshwater has led to misuse and abuse of the resource,” says Environment Canada (EC) out of 16 peer countries, Canada ranks 15th in water withdrawals and earns a “C” grade for usage that is nearly double the average of all of these countries
Part of the problem is that Canadians pay much less for their water compared with their peers, according to EC figures, averaging 31 cents per cubic metre while many others pay
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I believe that the large water footprint prevalent in Canadians is because of our government. Firstly, if the government were to enforce a law making water meters mandatory in every household and business, then we would expect to see a huge decrease in the average water consumption. Only 72% of households have water metres, a flat rate per month is not effective because people may be deceived into thinking that they are very conservative with their water usage, however they are using 200+ litres of water than the average Canadian household. Secondly, it should be mandatory that business have a water strategy carefully outlined and disclosed to the government. This helps the government to understand how businesses are making use of their water conservatively. Governments should be able to track their plan and water usage to see if they accurately reflect one another. Governments can offer an incentive to reward companies that are able to follow their water strategies that are considered to be reasonable and exceptional. Lastly, it is the government’s responsibility to promote water reuse and recycling in businesses. New technology and machinery should be innovated and sold to companies for disinfecting large volumes of water to significantly reduce our water consumption. There should be the only exception that potable water can only be used for humans or anything food related. Other than that, agricultural industries need to recycle their water as they are responsible for a huge percentage of our water