Canadians using water at 'alarming rates': Study
 

Most Canadians call water the country's most valuable natural resource, yet they use it at "alarming rates" and they're not cutting back, a study says.

Canadians currently use an average of 329 litres of water per person, per day — second only to the United States in the developed world, and more than twice as much as Europeans.

A study shows water-consumption rates climbed marginally from 2008. For example, the average Canadian shower was 30 seconds shorter last year than it has been so far in 2009, according to survey results. In 2008, Canadians showers lasted, on average, 7.6 minutes, while they stood under the shower head for 8.1 minutes in 2009.

The 2009 Canadian Water Attitudes Study found that, although 84 per cent of respondents were concerned about the availability and quality of water in the long term, consumption actually rose last year. This occurred, despite the fact that 53 per cent of respondents ranked water as the country's most valuable natural resource.

"We're getting somewhere with respect to our changed consciousness, but where we're not getting anywhere is, despite the fact that we value this stuff, we're not doing anything about it," said Bob Sandford, a water expert involved in the survey.

"We're beginning to understand that our water resources are not unlimited. We've lived for generations with the myth of limitless water abundance and gradually, I think, that particular myth is being eroded."

Sandford, who chairs the Canadian Partnership Initiative of the UN Water for Life Decade, thinks that myth comes from misconceptions Canadians have about water. While Canada holds 20 per cent of the world's fresh water supply, it holds only 6.5 per cent of the world's renewable fresh water, and much of it is up North, far away from big cities.

Randy Christensen, a spokesman for Ecojustice Canada, an environmental advocacy group, said the government needs to play a significant role in rectifying the situation. Public education, incentives for eco-friendly appliances, more rigorous industry regulations and fixing leaky city pipes are all ways the government can help.

"It is possible to use less water and not have it affect our quality of life," Christensen said.

Christensen noted that, although Canada is making some strides, they are in areas where water use has already peaked, and a strain on the environment has already occurred. "The environment suffers first, before humans," he said.

The study also noted that 32 per cent of respondents said they don't drink tap water at all, while 41 per cent of those polled said they drink the water without treating it.

Christensen believes that concern is justified, as a 2008 Canadian Medical Association study found there were roughly 1,700 boil-water alerts across Canada in March of that year. He said that number still applies today, though they're usually in smaller communities that don't have the resources required to ensure safe drinking water, and it isn't a problem in big cities.

The survey, conducted by Ipsos Reid from Feb. 5 to 12, sampled 2,165 adults across Canada, and is considered accurate within 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service

i so dont use 329 liters per day. wtf do u ppl do wash ur cars 3 times a day and take 5 baths?!

Duh, that's what happens when you charge a flat rate for water.

Is it a flat rate though? My wife pays the bills but I'm almost positive I pay for the usage of my water just like I do Hydro/gas and it's not a flat rate.

Is it a flat rate though? My wife pays the bills but I'm almost positive thats it's metered and I pay for the usage of my water just like I do Hydro/gas.

Someone tazer the person that did that study.

Has he been here before?

Did he/she notice that all it fucking does here is rain? And where it doesn't rain, it snows a shit load.

Look at the size of the country vs. number of people.

We use lots of water...possibly because we have lots?!

I always get a laugh when it's September and they hippies are like "oh noes teh reservoir is getting low" then it rains for 10 months.............

man wtf is with these BS claims about water not being limitless. we f#%*@ learned that water is recycled daily in grade 2!!!!! remember the global warming BS? the earth was supposed to melt over 5 years ago, and our air is supposed to be so thick you could almost cut through it. look at us now, we're still alive.

common myths and MY explanations which are likely correct:


Myth: Global warming is happening
Fact: Our sun has heat cycles every 11 years, the world reacts accordingly, trees clean our air, we still have lots of trees

Myth: We'll run out of oil by 201X
Fact: Current oil extraction sites will run out of oil, but thats why there's exploration teams out there to find and foster new projects for gathering oil. There's still plenty of surface oil (non-tarpits, the cheap-to-extract stuff) to last us decades, and a LOT more tar pits for the long term, when we've hopefully developes technology to extract it cheaply and efficiently

Myth: Street racing is dangerous
Fact: Street racing is dangerous but only 8 people died from street racing last year while 110 died in bc alone for drunk driving. see my thread which has somehow ended up in fight club category, like wtf forum censorship by nazi mods LOl jk plz dont ban

Myth: We'll run out of water
Fact: Refer to grade 2 science text books. You can turn piss into drinkable water thanks to waters two best friends: evaporation and condensation. Likewise, chemicals can be manually extracted through water treatment plants, then the remaining safe-waste water can evaporate without damaging the ecosystem

Myth: Garbage is ruining the planet
Fact: A lot of garbage biodegrades, just like your body after you die. It turns into mush, then soil, then after many years its like there was never any garbage at all. Also, in the future, rocket ships will send garbage to the sun.

How???

^ maybe its 32.9 L?

This study seems pretty dumb IMO

I think my house, 6 people (3 people up stairs, 2 in the bottom suite, and 1 in the back suite) combine use that much water in a day. My main water consumption comes from drinking, and I only drink like 5L max per day, also I have fast showers as I don't see a point to long ones, as it wastes water, lawl.

yes, let's conserve water and have it overflow the reservoirs instead.. that'll save the world. Maybe California can make use of it after it flows out to sea :thumbsup:

at least those eco-freaks aren't stupid enough to come up with useless ideas like say banning bottled water or something :lol

Not surprised one bit.

Peeing and shiting uses quite a bit.

well if its a concern Canada should stop giving vast quantities of water to the USA

i highly doubt you shower with less than a jug of milk's worth of water a day and the average toilet uses something like 8 liters of water per flush.

crazy if its true

flushing the toilet can take up to 13 liters each time. Even with low flow ones it takes 6 Ls. Now I pee 4 times a day give or take, and that's 50 Ls down the drain already for me. Throw in showers, food, averaged laundry usage, that's not at all surprising.

main consumption will ALWAYS come from your toilet.

Just a usful tip, a leaking faucet tap can run up to 10,000 liter per year :)

If you made it to grade 9 you'd know that not all water is useable, freshwater is overused. I'd like to see you try to drink or wash your car with salt water or contaminated water.

Also, garbage biodegrades, but the rate is not fast enough to turn into "soil" in your lifetime, aluminum and metals that are filling our landfills will take hundreds of thousands of years to break down.

we have too much water. Just use it for god's sake.

I'm reading this, and it's raining like shit outside.
Like I always said... good to be concious of what you're doing and the impact of "water straight to your tap". But meh... we live next the ocean.

I forgot where it's from but "water, water everywhere, let's go drink some"

Technology will prevail.

California and Australia produce a lot of fresh water from de-desalinization. It takes a lot of energy, yet throw up a few solar panels or wind turbines and you've got a completely renewable source of water.

Those inland will have to pay to pump it there, yet anything is possible, it'll just cost more.

Hell we could use this technology to irrigate the desserts of the world, creating enough vegetation to remove all the carbon we create.

seriously? last time i checkd canada had too much water. its bin raining for the past uh, forever

Someone did an analysis of the amount of garbage produced worldwide, and in 100 years it still wouldn't fill a small state in the US. Considering how small that is compared to the landmass of the world, I'm hardly worried about how long garbage takes to decompose.

We should just be conscious. Just use wut u need and a little bit more. Everyone will be happy.