Clean Drinking Water In Canadian Cities?

[Oscar]

Clean Drinking Water In Canadian Cities?

[ http://www.manitobawildlands.org/news_i ... umber=2258 ]

July 3, 2015

The topic of unsafe drinking water is usually associated to the developing world. In Canada, regular recurrences of boil-water advisories, and widely publicized outbreaks in towns like Walkerton and Kashechewan have shown, even in Canada, clean water cannot be taken for granted. Increased scrutiny caused by such issues has resulted in widespread criticism of the uneven drinking water regulation among Canada’s provinces and territories.

In Canada, it is left to each province to decide how many tests each of its municipalities should do - a system Health Canada said makes sense based on which contaminants are relevant in any particular region.

"They should be testing for everything, maybe not all the time, but at least on a periodic basis, rather than never testing for them at all," said Eva Pip, a University of Winnipeg professor specializing in water quality and toxicology.

CBC asked 18 cities in every province and territory to provide a list of the health-related contaminants they test in their water supplies. Only one — Ottawa — tests for all 75 substances found in Health Canada's published guidelines for Canadian drinking water.

Some cities, like Calgary, Edmonton and Halifax, test for all but one of the substances in the guidelines. Quebec City tests for 62, Regina 52, Winnipeg 49, St.John's 26 and Iqaluit just tests for 20.

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View June 19, 2015 CBC News article
[ http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ ... -1.3111908 ]

View June 19, 2015 Water Technology article
[ http://www.watertechonline.com/articles ... alls-short ]

View March 13, 2015 CTV News article
[ http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/at-least-1 ... -1.2278160 ]

View September 10, 2012 The Globe and Mail article
[ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/hea ... cle625594/ ]


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