World views collide over water crisis - Simcoe

World views collide over water crisis

Kathleen O'Hara's story on the Be the Change Conference in London was just another instance of the growing alarm over the availability of fresh drinking water in the world. It seems that good water is a disappearing commodity.

Until recently, most of us thought this was a Third World problem. Certainly here in Canada we think we have seemingly endless supplies. Suddenly though, as we look at the southeastern United States, the danger seems close at hand. A huge area, usually awash in rain, is suffering a drought of biblical proportions. The lake that supplies Atlanta with its water will be totally dry in six weeks.

Climate change is flexing its muscles and up here in Canada we'd better take note.

I write this letter because the Ministry of the Environment and Simcoe County are doggedly proceeding with Site 41 as a new site for dumping garbage. The location sits squarely on top of a huge aquifer reputed to have the most pristine drinking water in the world.

In the light of our latest knowledge about the importance of safeguarding our water, one would think the various governments would be having a rethink. But no, the project is pressing ahead and damn the torpedoes. Next year climate change could do the same thing to Ontario as it has done to the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama and north Florida this year. This beautiful water resource up here in Tiny Township would look mighty good then and woe betide any government that tried to spoil it.