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Today is Bottled Water Free Day. And to celebrate, the Bottled Water Free Coalition has just released a new and inspiring video (see below) about people taking action to protect water and what you can do to protect water in your community. The video features Robyn Hamlyn (13-year-old water warrior), Sylvia Plain (Aamjiwnaang First Nation), Mike Nagy (Wellington Water Watchers) and Munib Sajjad (University of Toronto). They tell their stories, what they are doing to protect water and what inspires them to take action.

Statistics Canada also released a study today that notes that “Canadian households are using less bottled water at home… About 22% of households reported that they drank primarily bottled water at home, down from 24% in 2009 and 30% in 2007. In contrast, 68% reported that they drank primarily tap water, an increase from 66% in 2009.” This timely study shows that people are paying attention to the negative impacts of bottled water including the greenhouse gases produced to transport bottled water from the source to other cities, the potential impacts of taking large amounts of water out of local watersheds and the fact that it takes three to five litres of water to produce every liter of bottled water.

This video highlights that bottled water represents larger issues including the privatization and commodification of water as a shared resource, access to water in indigenous communities and local democracy. With the federal budget being released on Thursday, we need to call on the federal government to provide adequate funding to public water and wastewater services.

With Bottled Water Free Day today and World Water Day on Friday, learn about the events happening in your community this week by clicking here and here.

Emma Lui - Fraser River

Emma Lui

Emma Lui is an activist, writer and researcher. She is a contributing editor with rabble.ca and a member of Cooperative Biblioterre. Emma is also the holistic health director for the Canadian Women...