Water Crisis?

[Mrs. Morrison]

Economic boom or environmental bust...or both?

[Adam Renshaw]

Both. Our Canadian lakes have huge amounts of fresh water, water that many other countries lack. Because of this, we have a fantastic opportunity to strengthen our economy by selling them this fresh water which they so desperately need. However, we cannot sell all of our water away, we still need the environment to be intact so we can continue to use it as a source of water. We have some of the biggest fresh water sources on this earth, but if they are pumped dry, our planet will lose a huge source of water, which is why we need to put a limit to what we pump. We are presented with a choice. Enjoy the fantastic economic benefits we will get by selling as much fresh water as possible to other countries and damage our environment quite severely, or preserve our water wisely by only selling so much water without completely destroying our environment. Either way, water is probably the most important substance on earth, we just need to make the right decision on how we manage it.

[Vanessa Coelho]

I disagree with Adam when he talks about selling water to other countries. The water is not ours to sell it belongs to the earth and ALL people. Most countries lacking water are rural countries who cannot afford to be charged for the natural resource they need the most. 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies yet we are wasting water without giving it a second thought. Have we really lost total compassion for others? I find it interesting how many people are more concerned about boosting the economy when there is a child dying every 20 seconds due to a water-related disease because they are being charged for clean water they can't afford so they are forced to drink what they have access to, dirty water contaminated with parasites and chemicals. I personally don't think it is right for us as fellow human beings to be making money off of others suffering..

[Abbygael Gregoire-Gaul]

I agree with Vanessa. Water is no one’s property and should not be used to have an “Economic Boom’’. Yes it could benefit our economy with an increase in great amounts of profit but where would that get us really? Many people around the world do not have water and die every day because of this while here we are abusing it more and more everyday. We use large, careless amounts of water, never really thinking about the fact that someone else in the world is dying because they either have contaminated water or no water at all. We should be sharing our water with them rather than putting a price on it, for many of those countries don’t have much money. Water is one of the planets elements that help us survive and everyone should be allowed to benefit from it like us. It would be a careless and selfish act if we were to ask those who are less fortunate to buy something that one, shouldn’t be on the market, and two, could not be afforded by them with our prices today. It’s wrong. Like Adam said, Water is probably one of the most important substances on Earth.

[Bobby F]

I also disagree with Adam where he talks about selling water to other countries. The earth’s water supply is not ours to sell it to others; it is everyone’s to share. We exploit the use of water every day. It’s something we all take for advantage and not realize it’s a privilege. People in other countries are dying every day because they are forced to drink dirty and contaminated water or none at all. Its things like leaving the water on to brush your teeth or letting the water run for a while that can make a big difference and millions of us do this every day. We all need to learn to use only what you need. Everyone is fighting over oil right now, but it takes 4 barrels of water to make 1 barrel of oil. It isn’t fair to be selling water to other countries that do not have clean water, when it also belongs to them. The water should be shared equally with everyone. At this rate, people will be fighting over water instead of oil because we are not cautious of how much were all using. The world doesn’t have a unlimited amount of water supply and its possible that sooner or later, the earth will eventually start to run out.

[Erik teh J0K3R]

Canada is one of the world's largest sources of water. I don't see what's the whole problem with selling the water that we have, we have plenty of it and we can have water whenever we want. All we have to is go to a store and BAM! There is beautiful water in a perfect bottle just crying out to be opened. If our economy is down in the dumps then we can just sell some water to other countries to get our economy back to where it belongs. We can start a new water company to sell water to other countries that don't have our god-like water and they can drink the heathy water instead of their rancid water. IF we do start selling to other countries they will keep on wanting more and more and that's exactly what we need to stay on the top of our game. For example, if we sell to a country that doesn't have a good source of fresh water we can sell our water to them so they get clean water and we can start rolling in the green. It's a win win situation. I doubt that we will run out of water anytime soon but if we do we will keep our own water to ourselves for awhile until the world starts asking for our water then we will say "I thought that water was a precious source that we should save." I know it sounds kind of mean but it DEFINITELY will be worth it to sell our water.

Right wing for the win!

[reneelanglois]

The water crisis in my eyes is a definite environmental bust. People aren’t taking into consideration that one day there won’t any fresh water to have. Until scientist discover a new substance that we can replace water with, I think we should really take into consideration that water is a necessity and not just something you can put a price on. We are abusing the right to have fresh water. When people find out that you can make a profit from something, they will do anything and everything it takes to sell that product. The big water companies are making sure that people don’t find out how bad this water crisis is turning out to be. When you think “lack of water”, you think of pour, foreign countries. But the reality is that it’s happening now and close to us. When you leave the tap running for an extra couple of seconds, stay in the shower for an extra 5 minutes or water your grass knowing it will rain. Do you ever think that maybe you are one of the millions of causes that we are running out of water? People need to start taking action against these big companies selling water at ridiculous prices and we need to come up with a compromise that will save us from our selfish selves. If you really think about it, we are taking away our own freedom. If water is a free, natural resource why put a price tag on it? How much better would this planet be if we didn’t put a price on everything and anything we can get our hands on?

[hodan ahmed]

I disagree with Erik. Every know form of life on earth, from the largest mammals to the smallest microbes relies on water. Water is the perfect fuel for our bodies. We do not have as much water as we want; there is a certain amount that we have! We could live our lives pretending that we have all the water we’ll ever need just because Canada has the largest source of it but that’s just misleading. “All we have to is go to a store and BAM!” Maybe today and for us that’s all that has to happen to get water but who knows about tomorrow? Even though water covers more than 70% of the earth, only 1% of earth’s water is available as a source of drinking. Our society continues to contaminate water regardless of the fact that our oceans are getting polluted, the cost of water is going up, and the youth of today is saying thing like ” We can start a new water company to sell water to other countries that don't have our ‘god-like’ water and they can drink”. I agree that water is god-like, but who are we to think that we are allowed to contaminate it, over use it, take advantage of it, and then down the line in 50 years the people that come after us will not have it. We need water to live; everyone has the right to live! We have to take care of our water and not over use it or take advantage of it. We can’t sit back while Canada has water and countries around the world do not because we say were going to save it for a rainy day 100 years or so down the line. We have to share our naturally god-given source with the world because God never gave water to anyone specific, it was put down on earth for everyone!

[Aliab asdfghjkl]

Everyone wants water. No one moderates it. Our worlds population is acclaimed to double over the upcoming years towards 2050, currently, we are having many North American known areas suffering from water SHORTAGES (I.e California). How many people take into account what our situation involving water would be like 20 years from now? Why do people believe that we'll have the same amount of water to waste when our grand children begin their lives on earth, like I stated earlier: our population is only growing. Our population is growing and our water availability is staying the same. It's up to the governments to impose privatizations on our water so we can actually value the earths treasure, not constantly exhaust it without any regrets. I understand many of the peoples sesitivity towards our water and that it should be free but we don't live in "The Garden of Eden" here, everything we do will reflect on our future.

Therefore to Not privatize the water would be more of an environmental bust in the long term that to privatize it and to privatize it would be an economic boom

[sheldonstinson]

Realistically, these two debates could be argued to be correct, although in reality, Canada being the largest source for natural resources, one being water, this is an advantage in our economic boom. It is an advantage because as population in our country and other countries begin to exponentially grow, our resources become more demanding and less consistent, especially natural resources, which are harder to find and produce. Due to Canada being a leader in producing natural resources, mainly water, countries which begin to lack in this area, turn to Canada to be able to provide continuously. As rural countries become over-populated, their resources will begin to decrease, forcing their government to look for outer sources of natural resources to help benefit their own country. In return, the Canadian government exchanges money or various imported products for water. This will benefit Canada in a whole, because we will gain imported goods which we need to help our country grow and become more economically rich. There is a disadvantage because although we are helping other countries to provide water for their population, if our own population runs out of water, it is our right to turn to our Canadians and provide for our own country before benefitting several other countries that are turning to our own for water. Although, in the end there would be no economic bust because we would still have all the natural resources we would originally need, and wouldn’t need to gain these from other countries.

[Matthew Anderson]

Except when they are a country's natural resource resulting in an economic boom. It is the reality of developing countries for their governments and businesses to exploit natural resources to increase the countries economy. Canada has a lot of natural resources: oil and gas in Alberta and forestry resources throughout the country. Unfortunately big oil and forest companies supported by governments use up huge areas of land. Canadian and American forestry companies backed by our very own profit seeking governments use up their natural resources digging deep into the earth for oil, and cutting huge amounts of trees to sell nationally and internationally. Unfortunately the same can be expected for our large and abundant fresh water resources when they are in high demand because there is less fresh water due to pollution and environmental droughts. The unfortunate reality is that when demand for something goes up, profits and economic boom will always win out over the environment impact. The government who is supposed to be protecting the environment is more interested and motivated in higher profits and taxes through the exploitation of its natural resources.

If government and companies keep destroying our forests, lands, and soon lake, then there will be a very real environmental crisis, but what an economic boom!

[Faduma Abukar]

I disagree with Adam too, mostly because we can't just sell water and get money out of it. It is just wrong. Vanessa already mentioned that water is not ours, it is the Earth's and it deserves to be used properly. We cannot just abuse the fact that we have water, before you know it, it will all be gone. Because we either sold it or used it on things that were not necessary. We should appreciate the water we have and not over use it. Some countries don't have alot of water. The companies sell the water because the world (or most of it anyway) is a market economy, everything is of value to someone or somewhere. They also take pride into selling the water .But they need to understand that there will not be water forever eventually it will be done. What will we do when that happens?

[Rosy K Ndumbi]

The water crisis is both. Considering the fact that Canada has the largest fresh water in the whole entire world, countries that don’t have much water will be willing to pay Canada so that they can have access to some fresh water as well. This will increase the economy of Canada because so many countries will be paying us, meaning more profits from those countries will be coming into Canada. The water crisis makes people understand how important water is and makes them use less of it because using too much will decrease the amount of fresh water we have. However the water crisis also means that fresh water is decreasing. From this, water companies are using cleaning methods that are damaging the environment. The more water becomes lower; plants stop to grow because plants need water to stay alive
My conclusion is if we want to have a strong economy, we need to think about the environment first because the things we need to make this economy stronger, we take from nature.

[Chase]

Canada has a huge water supply but if we talk this for granted we will end up with nothing are environment is all ready suffering by our poor choices in the world and if we don’t take a stand soon enough we will not have an earth to sell water. Bottled water is were we should take a stand and take control of the situation before it is to big to handle. Yes a lot of money comes from bottled water but are environment is suffering. Big companies don’t care what is happening with the environment and if we don’t care then it will are fault as much as the companies destroying our world. Water will soon become this biggest reason why our environment will crumble we shouldn’t let something this little have such a big effect on something so important to us. Also some bottled water companies use tap water for there water we don’t need to buy the water if we get the same at home for free.

[ShEmA rAnGiRa]

I agree with Adam but I would like add a few things. Canada does have an abundance of fresh water which does give us a great opportunity to strengthen our economy. It would seem a waste to not use this natural resource that is luckily within Canada’s borders to strengthen our country even further. By carefully selling our fresh water to other countries we will not only be strengthening our economy, we will be helping out other countries people to escape dehydration. I’d call that a win-win-situation, our economy strengthens and countries that have bought fresh water from us are in a better water situation than prior to the transaction. But of course water is one of the most precious substances on Earth and we can not just sell as much of our fresh water as we please. I believe that if we take little by little we will be okay since the lakes will replenish them selves. I don’t see how our selling water to eager buyers will affect anybody. It's a win-win-situation.

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