Tuesday, March 22 is World Water Day, yet Canadians are still fighting for the right to legally enforceable laws when it comes to the accessibility of clean drinking water for all its residents.
Where it hits home most is the ongoing dumping of contaminated soil into the Shawnigan Lake watershed. South Island Aggregates plans to continue this dumping for the next 50 years regardless of the outcries of locals and the overall feeling of betrayal that lingers in the Cowichan Valley.
If there was proper legislation to protect our bodies of water this entire battle could have been avoided, yet it has been ongoing since it was proposed in 2013. But sadly there are many other examples across Canada where the people aren’t being heard, the voices are too few, and the locals are left under boil-water advisories for decades.
This kind of behaviour is going to stop as more and more Canadians take a stand and refuse to stay silent on these issues. The United Nations has stated in 2012 that the issue of clean water is a fundamental human right. I hope that other Canadians will urge the federal government to introduce an environmental bill of rights that will recognize, protect and fulfill our human right to clean water.
It’s time for the federal government to implement the right to clean water in Canada by passing an environmental bill of rights that respects, protects and fulfils our right to a healthy environment, including the right to clean water.
Christine Gaudreau
Duncan