It’s time for Canadians to stop thinking that water challenges happen elsewhere, and start taking action here at home.
Most of us turn on our tap daily, without a thought about water consumption or quality. I say “most” because, unfortunately, there are still many Indigenous communities in Canada that have to contend with inadequate water quality and supply.
For a majority of Canadians, safe water is delivered by extensive underground networks to their homes. The critical water main break in Calgary this June gave city residents a very small glimpse into what it’s like to live without safely managed water — something more than two billion people worldwide live with year-round.
Today, as Calgary moves out of this emergency, my hope is that we can learn something from it.
Indeed, we cannot afford to not learn from this experience. Between aging infrastructure, population growth, land use changes and depleting water reserves, Canada is increasingly dealing with water issues and will continue to do so as floods, droughts and forest fires become more common.
From my more than 20 years of running an international water organization out of Calgary, I have witnessed many water-related challenges and crises, and believe there are concrete actions individuals can take to make a difference.
Most importantly, we need to develop habits to reduce our water consumption. In this, we can learn a lot from the global community on actions that can be taken by individuals at the household level:
Make water knowledge common knowledge: We need to find better ways to engage, educate and empower ourselves to understand our local water systems, to conserve water and to be ready to respond in the face of emergencies.
According to the World Health Organization, individuals need between 50 and 100 litres of water a day to meet their basic needs and address health concerns as they arise. In 2023, the average Canadian used 220 litres a day in their home.
There’s more we can do as individuals to better steward this important resource and be more knowledgeable about how to take care of our own water.
Measure what matters: Water matters and we need to find ways to measure what we use.
In the United Kingdom, water metering technology is top of the line. This technology provides the capability to understand at the household-level how and where water is being consumed, and provides alerts if there are substantial increases that could signal a leak or other problem.
During this past month, our team had an internal water challenge among staff to encourage one another to collectively reduce our water footprint at home and the office. Employees shared photos of unique rainwater harvesting setups they had; however, at the end of the day, our organization struggled to quantify how much we had reduced our water consumption.
Celebrate conservation: It’s time to normalize and celebrate those making tremendous efforts to conserve water.
Last month, our team was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the hotel had signs on the shower doors encouraging guests to join a “one-minute challenge” by showering in 60 seconds or less. In India, we visited homes that were completely self-sufficient on rainwater even though they had access to city water pipelines.
In Calgary, one community member I spoke with expressed feeling guilty for using rainwater. Surprised, I asked “Why?” It was because her grass and garden were flourishing and she was worried that her neighbours would think she was watering her lawn with a hose using city treated water. How about lawn signs that celebrate “I use rainwater!”
It is not easy to change our own behaviour, but there’s no doubt that water crises are only going to increase in our country. It’s our choice on how we adapt our water consumption habits and learn for the future.
Water will one day soon be more valuable than oil and gas. Canada, with the third greatest reserves of fresh water after Russia and Brazil, must begin now to protect its water. We need more ideas from Shauna on how to preserve and save water individually.
Thank you jomm12 for your comment! Here is a CAWST resource designed for North American and European contexts. We developed it in response to Canadian youth who wanted to learn more about actions we can take to protect and conserve water here in Canada.
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https://washresources.cawst.org/en/resources/67d25e1a/wash-behaviours
WASH Behaviours | WASH Resources
This hands-on card game was designed to use with youth in North America and Europe. It helps participants understand how local water, sanitation, and hygiene practices impact health and the environment.
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I’d also encourage anyone to learn more about what is happening in your own watershed! There are many great resources and programs available in communities across Canada (eg. municipalities and community organizations).