The Editor,
While John Challinor II, spokesperson for Nestlé Waters Canada - a subsidiary of Swiss multinational corporation Nestlé - scrambles to defend his company's interests by countering student and community efforts in local papers across the country, the fight to safeguard our publicly managed water resources continues, and this time in the form of the great work that students have done at Sacred Heart.
Hundreds of campuses, schools, municipalities, businesses and faith organizations across the country recognize that bottled water is environmentally problematic and are taking steps to make our society more conscious and sustainable by reinvesting in water fountains and kicking out bottled water. By promoting public tap water as the healthy beverage choice over single-use disposable bottles of water, committed students and members of the community are building a future where water is accessible to all.
In Canada, municipal water systems are among the safest and strongest in the world. Meanwhile bottled water costs more, is less regulated, consumes more energy and releases more harmful toxics.
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.
So let's get together to locally manage and protect our water resources to guarantee a healthy future for all! Like Sacred Heart who has been declared a bottled water free zone, encourage your elected officials and local institutions to make access to tap water a priority and to lead by example by kicking the bottle.
Daniel Cayley-Daoust
Polaris Institute
Ottawa, Ont
