Fresh water: Canada’s lifeblood

The story of water is the story of Canada.

A glance at any map clearly shows that both aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples consistently located their dwellings, towns and cities along waterways.

This has included everything from fishing camps and small mills along creeks and streams, to our provincial and national capitals on major rivers and the Great Lakes. Water is the lifeblood of our country — of our communities, our commerce and our culture.

But it is also the lifeblood of nature. And if nature fails, we all fail.

That is why organizations such as WWF-Canada are working hard to understand how much fresh water nature needs, to ensure that this “environmental flow requirement” is not exceeded by human activities.

This is like the Earth’s blood pressure, and involves both the quantity and quality of water flowing through our life-support system. So whether it’s for agriculture, oil sands or urban use, we must respect nature’s seasonal water thresholds. We must limit ourselves in order to leave enough water for healthy ecosystems.

This concept of environmental flow requirements — what nature needs — should anchor water policy everywhere in Canada.

For example, in mighty northern rivers like the Mackenzie, where there is still a relative abundance of fresh wild-water, Canadians have an opportunity plan ahead to protect nature’s water needs.

Elsewhere, where we are closer to the line in terms of acceptable pressure on our water supply, such as the Athabasca, precious water must be conserved and carefully managed.

And for those rivers like the South Saskatchewan, where we have stepped over the line and already exceeded nature’s needs, unfortunately water must be restored — the critical, conflict-ridden and most expensive situation we should always try to avoid.

Most Canadians do not support exporting raw water from Canada. But in fact we do this in a virtual way every day by sending products that used water in their manufacture all over the world.

Every product has a “water footprint,” from lumber, to beer, to oil and gas to electricity. This means that Canada’s rivers and lakes are bearing the water footprint of goods produced here but consumed elsewhere.

For example, the gasoline powering a family car down a U.S. interstate highway may very well be the product of Canada’s oil sands, so that tankful took hundreds of litres of water out of the Athabasca River to produce.

But Canadians also import water, through the products we buy, such as sugar and cotton. The water footprint of your new cotton shirt is felt by rivers in India or China.

In this way, water is deeply embedded in the global economy. We are all part of a virtual worldwide trade in water, through the global flow of goods that require water to produce. And Canada’s waters are certainly carrying a heavy load.

That said, each of us having a water footprint is not a bad thing; it’s a necessary thing. But our water footprint needs to be better understood, individually and collectively. And where we can be more efficient or less polluting in our water use, we should be, always respecting what nature needs.

I first dipped a paddle into the deep, clear water of Ontario’s Temagami country at age seven, an experience that profoundly shaped the rest of my life.

Over the years, I have canoed most of our northern rivers with my wife, family and friends. Future generations should have that same opportunity, right across Canada.

John Turner is a former prime minister of Canada and a member of the board, now honourary director, of WWF-Canada.