Environment Canada Report: Stop Taking Water for Granted

Stop taking water for granted, report warns Ottawa
August 2008
The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — Canada's stores of fresh water are not as plentiful as once thought, and water shortages threaten to pinch the economy and pit provinces against each other, says a newly released document.

An internal report drafted last December by Environment Canada warns that climate change and a growing population will further drain resources.

"We can no longer take our extensive water supplies for granted," says the report, titled A Federal Perspective on Water Quantity Issues. (...)

Canada has a fifth of the world's supply of fresh water, but only seven per cent of it is renewable. The rest comes from ice-age glaciers and underground aquifers.

One per cent of Canada's total water supply is renewed each year by precipitation, the report says.

Moreover, government data on the country's groundwater reserves is deemed "sparse and often inadequate." MORE >>>