WC137 JulyAug 2024 - Magazine - Page 26
DRINKING WATER
city’s downtown square. To beat the heat during
the summer months, Edmonton now boasts 20
temporary water bottle filling stations, and Charlottetown has embarked on the path of making
potable water more readily available by increasing
the number of outdoor fountains in public parks
and at local schools. All told, the city has added
three public fountains, nine in community centres
and other municipal buildings, and four in schools.
The latter was made possible by a cost-sharing
model whereby the city provided the fountains and
the schools covered the installation costs.
Observed Charlottetown Mayor Philip Brown, “these fountains and refill stations are close to either sports fields or walking
paths… in locations determined by our Environmental and Sustainability and Parks and Recreation departments who worked
together to review sites based on public feedback.”
Reflecting on both his city’s commitment and challenges to
adding more drinking fountains, Brown said, “we’ll continue to
install fountains where there is demand for a feasible location and
budget to cover costs.”
The cost of keeping people hydrated
The latter consideration of cost is top of mind with more than
one local politician in this county. As Environment Defense’s
Wirsig observed, “as we all know, municipalities are extremely
strapped for cash. And where’s the money going to go? Many
people will say housing and transit are our top priorities… and
how could we disagree with that?”
26
WATER C AN ADA • JULY/AUGUS T 2024
So as cities wrestle with the question of
how funding for more public fountains
ranks alongside other essential needs,
Wirsig said they must also contend with the
hidden costs of recycling and landfill waste.
Costs are multiplied by the lack of public fountains and our
longstanding acceptance of using plastic water bottles.
“We estimate that billions of plastic bottles are wasted every
year, going straight into nature or to landfill or incinerators.
What municipalities are on the hook for at the moment is they
pay half the cost of if they’re put in a blue box or the full cost if
(bottles and other plastics) they end up in the garbage,” and on
to landfill sites.
She said Ontario alone stands to receive an estimated $150
million a year just by having those costs shifted entirely to the
producers. Previously, there was some talk behind the scenes of
the producers lobbying the province to get out of that obligation,
giving rise to concerns the recycling costs would be diverted back
to the municipalities.
However, Wirsig said they recently learned “the province has
scheduled a new working group meeting on establishing a deposit-return program (and) this would not be based on consumer
WAT E R C A N A D A . N E T
vancouver.ca, City of Charlottetown, freiburgcup.de
Left to right: Vancouver has 290 permanent drinking
fountains, 10 temporary fountains and seven misting stations all of which can be found using the city’s Tap Map.
Charlottetown has embarked on the path of making potable water more readily available by increasing the number
of outdoor fountains in public parks and at local schools.
Freiburg, Germany reduced costs associated with waste
collection, recycling, and environmental pollution by introducing a system whereby participating cafes and shops
would use the same refillable Freiburg cup.
