Accessibility and Access Keys [0]
Meredith Brown: I believe the only way to guarantee water resources for the future is to work collaboratively in regions to protect the quality and the quantity of our local water sources. Technology alone cannot guarantee our society will have access to safe drinking water in perpetuity.
In Canada we have become complacent and somewhat ignorant about how clean, safe drinking water is delivered to our homes 24/7. In urban Canada we rely on technology to bring us clean, filtered and tested drinking water. It seems reliable, but what if North America is hit by a solar storm that destroys our power grids (see March 21 2009 article in New Scientist Magazine entitled “Gone in 90 seconds”)? There are many plausible scenarios that could leave us powerless for months and possibly years.
Today we are polluting our drinking water sources (lakes, rivers and aquifers) with fertilizers, pesticides, radioactive tritium, and municipal and industrial wastewater – a cocktail of toxic chemicals that disrupt our endocrine systems and cause cancer. We cannot design and build infrastructure fast enough to remove or “treat” this mix of chemicals that is rapidly changing.
However, even with unlimited budgets and the perfect technologies in place to deal with any water issue that we may face, sustainable resource management always falls back to the fundamental necessity to manage people and populations.
Think about where you would like to be with your family in the event of long-term power failure and water wars. I will be looking for a community with a source of drinking water that is shared, yet respected and protected at all costs.
Canadian Water Treatment Magazine