Canadian Students are Waiting to Learn about Drinking Water Quality Issues and SolutionsMany Canadian schools are on the waiting list for sponsored kits. Please click on the map to discover if schools in your area, the school your children attend or the school from which you graduated is waiting for a sponsored kit. Please donate a kit to a school today!
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CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) Enough is Enough Campaign: Access to Water isn't a privilege. It is a right.The Enough is Enough campaign is in collaboration with the Assembly of First Nations and the Safe Drinking Water Foundation It is unacceptable that any Indigenous people in Canada – First Nations, Métis and Inuit - should be subjected to conditions where there is no access to safe drinking water. Numerous examples of the deplorable conditions that exist in many First Nations clearly demonstrate that access to clean water for all First Nation citizens is not a priority for the federal government. These conditions would not be tolerated in any other Canadian communities, and if they do occur, swift and decisive action is the norm and is expected. Protecting our water from the harmful effects of development is a responsibility we all share. Clean drinking water is a right for all. Governments must work with First Nations and the public in the delivery and development of a clear, responsible, sustainable water management plan. This plan must include water regulations supported by proper funding for water and wastewater treatment plants, training for water operators, adequate baseline studies, proper monitoring, cumulative impact assessment, and ensure important habitat is projected for fish and wildlife. For more information and to take action by signing the petition please visit http://cupe.ca/takeAction.php?action=showAction&actionID=294 | ||
We are in the news!John Diefenbaker School waits for sponsored education kit That’s because educator Colleen Berge saw an opportunity to get a sponsored Safe Drinking Water Kit for her Grade 8 class at John Diefenbaker School and took it. Water purity is one of the units her class is studying, the Grade 8 and physical education teacher said, and added that hands-on learning is a big part of the curriculum. “So, I thought that the whole kit idea would kind of give them that opportunity and even with all the things we’ve had going on with our own water treatment system this past year in Prince Albert, I thought it was kind of cool to see what really is in the water system and how it is tested to make it safe for our drinking.” Berge said the opportunity came through for funding and thought it wouldn’t hurt to use a product available to the school. Not all schools, however, took advantage of the general offer for the kits – which surprised Berge. “Sometimes, funds are a little bit tight, and I guess it’s – you have to choose where you think the funds are most necessary, and because there was an option of getting this funded, I definitely took advantage of it,” she said. “And I was lucky to get it, let’s face it.” The effect of reduced spending on educators’ ability to get hands-on materials for their students is a concern shared by the executive director of SDWF, Nicole Hancock. “There are a lot of teachers that have had their funding cut for their classrooms and are unable to provide hands-on materials for their students,” Hancock said. “And hands-on learning is how most students learn best.” Her foundation provides thousands of drinking kits to schools across Canada in both English and French. The kits are priced between $70 to $140, and sponsor and donor funds have prevented many schools from paying out of pocket. Toronto-Dominion Bank Group is one of the current main sponsors. Other major companies and organizations – including Mosaic and SaskTel – have sponsored the program. The kits give students an opportunity to learn about the issues facing drinking water and conduct hands-on experiments, Hancock said. The foundation has been providing the Operation Water Drop Kits to schools since 2001. Back then, only a handful of them were distributed within Saskatchewan and Alberta. Since the program’s inception, 184 Saskatchewan schools have received kits. On Twitter: @thiajames Hundreds of schools, including one in P.A., on SDWF kit waiting list
Above is the ammonium test card for the Safe Drinking Water Foundation’s High School Operation Water Drop kit. “We send out a massive email to tens of thousands of schools in the fall and also follow up with reminder emails, and that’s when most people set up,” SDWF executive director Nicole Hancock said. The SWDF aims to ship out about 1,000 kits per year, with an average of 50,000 students benefiting from 1,000 kits. By issuing these kits, the SDWF’s main goal is to educate students about drinking water quality. “It kind of depends on the program. In the case of the Operation Water Drop kits, (students) learn about their local water and how water is tested in actual labs,” Hancock said. “They learn about the guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality, and they see if their local drinking water meets all of those guidelines.” In addition to educating students about drinking water quality issues and solutions, teachers and principals have attested to the kits allowing the opportunity for more hands-on learning with regard to science experiments. “It motivates them to take more science classes and to pursue careers in science,” Hancock said. Schools in rural Saskatchewan tend not to acquire SDWF kits because the foundation’s largest funder, TD Bank Group, has fewer branches in those areas. However, Mosaic ensured that every Saskatchewan school received the kits they requested last year by contributing more than $10,000. “There are not as many (schools) in Saskatchewan as there are in some of the other provinces, but there is definitely still a need in many communities in Saskatchewan,” Hancock said. “It really depends on where they’re located (to determine) what their chances are of (acquiring sponsored kits). “It depends on where we get funding from, but if you’re not in Saskatchewan, then odds are your chances are not very good if you don’t have a TD Bank in your community,” Hancock added. Past users of the SDWF kits have included the Ranch Ehrlo Society and a number of schools in Prince Albert and the surrounding area. Currently, John Diefenbaker School is the only school in the city of Prince Albert on the waiting list. For more information regarding the SDWF, visit: | ||
Watch Shattered GroundA look at the Hydraulic Fracking process, its spread across the world and the impact it is having on the environment and communities. http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episode/shattered-ground.html?subpage=infographic | ||
Watch this motivational video! | ||
Biological Water Treatment is the Solution by Dr. Hans PetersonAs was stated in the previous editorial “Poor Quality Raw Waters Need More than Chemical Treatment”, it was in 2002 that Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (AANDC) and Associated Engineering (AE) were at a loss for how to deal with Yellow Quill’s poor quality raw water.  Yellow Quill’s raw water collected in the treatment plant (left), Saskatoon’s raw water collected from the South Saskatchewan River upstream from Saskatoon on the same day AE had produced a report with half a dozen treatment technologies for Yellow Quill and AANDC to consider, but AE was not able to give the community any assurances that any of the suggested technologies would work or indeed meet the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality. The options for AANDC were not good and it did not seem possible that chemical water treatment would be the solution. AANDC, in the end, suggested that AE hire me to try to resolve the issues Yellow Quill was facing with their water. I was reluctant as I felt an engineer, not a biologist, should tackle Yellow Quill’s water treatment issues. Think about it, 99% of all water treatment in the world is based on chemistry and physics, 99% of all people working on water treatment are engineers. So, for AANDC to suggest to AE to hire a biologist seemed to me like a leap of faith. Let me explain:  Biologically treated (left) and untreated (right) Yellow Quill groundwater During the biological process the bacteria have gained energy and bound the contaminant without generating any particles. So, in a way, biological treatment is all about not generating any oxidized particles. The water in a biological groundwater treatment plant will remain clear throughout the biological treatment process. This allows for very long filtration runs typically 10 to 20 times longer than for chemical treatment. This saves both operator time and water needed for backwashing. The IBROM system has been designed to remove even the smallest breadcrumb and, in addition, it is done in a way that leaves the operator in 100% control with state of the art remote technologies to allow the operator to observe and control the entire process from wherever there is an Internet connection. If ever a problem arises, troubleshooting can be undertaken and the problem can be resolved remotely ensuring that the production of high quality drinking water is always a given. | ||
Water Fact of the WeekHyacinths Clean Water the Natural Way
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Framework for Safe Drinking WaterThe Framework for Safe Drinking Water was completed in August 2011. In Canada municipalities own and are responsible for drinking water treatment facilities and must supply the public with safe drinking water. This task is often more difficult in rural municipalities. Smaller communities generally have less expertise, fewer resources, and poorer quality source water than larger cities. Another problem is that most existing water treatment technologies are optimized for larger centres and may not work as well when scaled down. The Framework for Safe Drinking Water is meant to counter these challenges and streamline the daunting task of building new or updating older drinking water treatment facilities. By looking at it from both the legal and health perspectives we can help communities get the safest drinking water possible. | ||
SDWF Facts
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Public PolicySDWF is committed to supporting public policies that help people access safe drinking water. We believe that practical policies based on sound science are the best way to ensure that everyone drinks safe water. With over a decade of technical expertise and experience working with rural communities, we educate and inform First Nations, policy-makers and the public to build support for the right policies. First Nations Drinking Water PolicyWhile it is hard for many rural communities to provide safe drinking water, the situation in First Nations communities is especially difficult. Since 1995, a number of reports have highlighted the unacceptable situation in these communities. Health Canada still tells 117 communities to boil their water and Indian Affairs says that there is a good chance that water systems in 85 communities could break down. | ||
EducationOperation Water Drop - Allows students to perform hands-on tests on their local waterand compare their water to other water samples and the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality Operation Water Pollution - Students learn about what water pollution is, what can be done about the problem and what they, personally, can do about the problem. Operation Water Biology - Teaches students about chlorine, chloramine, ammonia, iron and biological water treatment (a more environmentally friendly method of treating water) Operation Water Health - Students are guided through an examination of health issues related to drinking water Operation Water Flow - A cross-curricular program that gives students a more thorough understanding of issues surrounding drinking water Operation Water Spirit - Conveys Aboriginal culture and perspectives regarding drinking water Operation Community Water Footprint - Allows students to calculate how much source water their community uses in order to produce each litre of drinking water | ||