Describing The State Of Drinking Water In Canada (Essay Sample)

State of Drinking Water Quality in Canada
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State of Drinking Water Quality in Canada
Water quality is the state of water based on certain parameters that are set and are widely accepted to govern the measure used to determine if the quality of water is acceptable. These parameters include physical, chemical, and biological conditions of the water. Water is vital in everyday life since it has many uses in every area of our lives. Therefore, the importance of high quality water is vital to any community since drinking of unsafe water is unacceptable. The state of the quality of water differs between major urban areas in Canada and indigenous communities. Water quality in Canada is below acceptable levels.
The guidelines of water quality in Canada is established by the Committee on Drinking Water and it is published by Health Canada. These guidelines use current research findings to base their review on. Health Canada in collaboration with the government, sets the guidelines that are acceptable for human consumption. This is based on the concentration levels of chemicals that are considered harmful to the human health. Every water system in Canada is supposed to adhere to these guidelines in order to provide safe and clean water. However, the implementation of this guidelines is not distributed throughout Canada as is expected. (Levasseur & Marcoux 2015).
In fact, an estimated 66 percent of communities in Canada have received drinking water advisory, where communities are advised to boil their water before consumption, in the past 10 years. Water advisory can be initiated based on a number of factors such as poor pipe connections, poor infiltration and disinfection, and low pressure. Approximately 150 water advisories are given every single day on ‘First Nation’ communities. This number has increased tremendously over the last ten years. This suggests that there is a big issue with water quality all over the country (Plummer et al. 2013).
This issue that emanates not only from the urban territories but also the indigenous communities, does not come from economic issues, this is more of a social issue. This is evidenced by the fact that the government has spent over $2 billion in about 10 years to eradicate the problem. This shows that effort has been put on an economical view point to eliminate the water quality issue to no avail. Therefore, it is the will of the people in the community to follow the guidelines set by the government and many environmental organizations that is not being followed to the latter to ensure a high level of water quality is maintained by all the regions in Canada. (Nation 2006).
A very vital aspect that determines the water quality issue in Canada is the level of technology and effectiveness of water treatment plants that are available in the country. For instance, according to a research done by The Globe, it was found that at least one-third of First Nations in Canada possessed water treatment systems that with medium to high risk of giving out water that was not safe for human consumption. In fact, Canada has more than 600 reserves and a number of them have recorded failed water treatment plants together with other infrastructure. Nevertheless, the technology used by this systems were below the standards and were poorly maintained. This clearly shows that the water treatment systems in Canada is wanting (The Globe).
The current situation is clearly not something to be taken lightly and should be resolved with immediate effect. Some of the causes of this problems may be attributed to underfunding by the Federal government. This shows a lack of commitment on their part to ensure that the problem is resolved. ...