The Water Elephant - A Public Challenge

What you flush is out of sight and mind for most people. The impact of what goes down the drain is an elephant in the room in dire need of attention. Every water source large, small, municipal or rural has come in contact with some level of contaminant.  The argument can be made that there is no "pure" water source left in the province, country or planet anywhere human interaction has taken place.

Consider the fact that Ontarian's flush the toilet an average of 68 million times every day or twenty four billion eight hundred twenty million times per year. The nearly 25 Billion flushes annually contribute dramatically to all water sources and what goes down the drain is something that everyone has a role to play.

Don't place old paint, oils, house hold cleaners, grease, personal products, oils or any other product into your toilet. Municipal water systems are routinely clogged with paper towels, dental floss, paper, Q-Tips and even toys. If you are on a septic system flushing any of these items could cause a blockage or failure of the system and lead to water contamination.

Boil water advisories, algae blooms, chemicals and agricultural runoff have become common everyday terms and no longer gain the public attention they deserve. Recent concerns over Pharmaceuticals, heavy metals and emerging contaminants are not generally understood by the public for the risks associated with them. 

It is the role of the individual, government, municipalities and corporations to jointly manage what enters a water supply.  At the core of this is the role that you as the individual have. Consider the impact if everyone had the ability to drop off unused pharmaceutical products at their local drug store with no charge. What if everyone stopped buying cleaning products with harsh chemicals today? This would force corporations to simply change their product to be free from contaminant and eventually you would go to the store and see different line of products on the shelf. 

The power of the individual is compounded when multiplied and change occurs when the public works together to achieve a goal. Governments and corporations will adapt and change if the public will is strong enough. Water is a finite resource that should be every person’s responsibility to manage. 

The complexity of contaminant interaction with water is not measurable in simple terms.

This idea may seem simple and unrealistic. Consider the recycling and smoke free initiatives that are now part of our everyday lives. Questioning what goes down the drain is a very simple idea that can dramatically affect your water quality. Change occurs when the public works together to achieve a goal.