Letter to the Councillors of the Town of Midland from local Council of Canadians members

Friday, September 19, 2008

Dear Councillor,

As residents of Midland and members of the Council of Canadians, we are writing to urge you to support the resolution being presented by Councillor Gordon McKay to “ ban the sale of disposable plastic water bottles in Town facilities.”

Water is a human right and we strongly oppose the bottled water industry’s commodification of this public resource. In addition, the environmental and social costs of bottled water are enormous and the proposed measures will make a huge difference in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, eliminating waste from our crowded landfills, and in making Midland an environmental leader in Canada.

In an era when the world is dealing with the impacts of climate change, the bottled water industry requires massive amounts of fossil fuels to manufacture. According to Bow River Keeper, a citizens’ group aimed at protecting the Bow River watershed in Alberta, a quarter of the 89 billion litres of bottled water consumed every year is consumed outside the country of its origin. Hence the transportation of bottled water also produces large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Bow River Keeper estimates that “the manufacturing and transport of one kilogram bottle of Fiji water consumes 26.88 kilograms of water (7.1 gallons), 0.849 kilograms of fossil fuel (one litre or 0.26 gal) and emits 562 grams of greenhouse gases (1.2 pounds).”

Bottled water also creates excessive amounts of physical waste when Ontario is dealing with a waste management crisis. Even in municipalities with strong recycling programs, recycling rates are lamentable.

Furthermore, the costs and effort required to recycle single use plastic bottles is unnecessary when we consider that municipal water quality standards in Midland Ontario exceed those of the bottled water industry. As you know, municipal water undergoes far more stringent testing and regulation than bottled water.

We are also concerned about the role of bottled water in exacerbating the global water crisis. It takes three to five litres of water to manufacture a one litre plastic bottle of water. Twenty per cent of Canadian municipalities have faced water shortages in recent years. And yet Canada is a net exporter of bottled water, selling its ancient glacier waters all over the world mostly for the profit of the foreign-owned, big four water companies. Most provinces charge these companies next to nothing to extract this water from springs and aquifers, and whole watersheds are now under threat from this practice.

According to the Earth Policy Institute, water shortages have been reported in the Great Lakes region near water bottling plants. In Guelph, a citizen’s coalition called the Wellington Water Watchers (WWW), which includes members of the Council of Canadians, has launched a campaign against Nestlé. The corporation’s water taking of 3.6 million litres per day is causing a reversal of groundwater flow to the Mill Creek.

The demand for bottled water has been carefully fostered by an industry that works hard to undermine our faith in public water. Nestlé, for instance, markets Aquapod, which is shaped like a rocket and aimed at the six-to-twelve-year-old market and whose slogan is ‘A blast of fun.’ Ads for the product have hit DC Comic books, Nickelodeon and children’s television shows. Nestlé spokesperson, John Challinor’s claim that citizens will turn to unhealthy beverages if they can’t buy bottled water is ludicrous. In reality, corporations like Nestlé have turned water into a commodity precisely because North Americans are turning away from their other unhealthy products.

The Council of Canadians sees municipal bottled water bans as an incentive to improve access to public drinking water in Canadian communities and calls on the federal government to complement these bans, like the one being proposed in Midland, with a national water policy that establishes enforceable national drinking water standards, improves funding to municipalities, protects groundwater sources, and bans bulk water exports.

As concerned citizens of Midland, we look forward to seeing our community protect the environment and promote water as a public resource by passing this very important resolution to ban the sale of bottled water on Town facilities.

Sincerely,

Alice Hedderick
Gordon McKay
Patricia A. Taylor
Patricia Thomas
Mary Stinson
Donald Urquhart
Aileen Wallace