EDITORIAL: Banning the bottle

We're hearing more and more talk at city council and school board tables about bans on selling bottled water.

It's about time.

Now, rather than debate a ban, the politicians need to just put it in place and be done with it. Banning bottled water sales is a no-brainer.

The evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of it.

Consider this: Some of the purest water in the world comes out of our taps; Our Lower Mainland water systems are tested thousands of times each year for contaminants; We spend billions of dollars on our water system; and Plastic water bottles are recyclable but many inadvertently end up in landfills.

With all of the evidence clearly there, one wonders how we ever became such larger consumers of bottled water. One study says one-fifth of Canadians drink bottled water exclusively.

That's an interesting statistic given that Canada is probably the richest water nation in the world.

Perhaps our water consumer habits go back to the contaminated water crisis in Walkerton, Ont., in which seven people died and 2,300 were poisoned. That isolated incident, ultimately blamed on human neglect, sent a scare through us.

But we have also been gullible to the slick messages put out by the bottled water industry, companies like Pepsico, Coca-Cola, Nestle and Danone. Their ads specifically target the young, athletic, affluent and those who just want to seem hip.

But there is now hope this bottled water trend could be turning the other way, thanks to people becoming more focussed on sustainability issues. Groups like the United Church of Canada and the Suzuki Foundation are making us more aware of the waste.

Famous environmentalist David Suzuki has said, "There is no good reason for Canadians to buy bottled water," and that we are "paying more for bottled water than we do for gasoline."

In making its argument against purchasing bottled water, the United Church claims consumers are supporting the privatization of water by buying it.

More public education is needed. And that's why cities, school boards and even corporations need to be the leaders in banning the sale of bottled water from vending machines.