For too many of us, turning on the tap and getting clean drinkable water is something we take for granted. What doesn't come with that cup of water is a reminder that much of the world lacks the same resource, and there is no guarantee about the future of water on the Sunshine Coast.
David Moul, environmental steward for St. Hilda's by the Sea Anglican Church, has been taking that message to local governments on the Sunshine Coast looking for support to get the word out.
"We wanted to get something locally stated about what we thought about water and also to lobby the [federal] government to accept that water is a fundamental basic human right," Moul said.
Moul's presentations have found sympathetic ears with local governments, earning a proclamation of World Water Day this past Sunday in the Town of Gibsons and resolutions from the District of Sechelt and Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) promising to send a message to the federal government sharing the concern.
Moul has been working on the issue with hopes of raising awareness and political will for the Canadian government to play more of a role in helping developing countries get access to clean water.
"Ultimately we would like to see water be added as a 31st entry onto the International Declaration of Human Rights," he said.
But Moul's ideas about water aren't based solely in the Third World. As a director for the Sunshine Coast Conservation Association (SCCA), he also has a stake in water on the Coast.
"We're concerned that the reservoir is running at capacity, even though we live in a rain forest, so there's something screwy somewhere," he said.
Moul isn't alone in sounding that alarm.
Dan Bouman, executive director of the SCCA, has been at the forefront of grassroots protection of water sources on the Sunshine Coast for years. Bouman and his editor Andrew Scott just released their book The People's Water, a history of public advocacy related to protecting water on the Coast.
Bouman said because of pressure from people on governments, Chapman Creek and Grey Creek, the main sources of drinking water on the Coast, are no longer threatened by industrial logging. Bouman's book celebrates these successes and he plans to distribute it around the province.
"It's to point out to people that everything they did was effective in the long term, that it really does work when people come together to try to achieve something for the common good," Bouman said.
The two biggest threats to the watershed now, according to Bouman, are increased demand for water use by the public and climate change."Those two threats will require a much different approach than we've had in the past, but the fundamentals of public scrutiny and awareness and the ability of the public to act to protect the watershed are still very important," he said.
Bouman is not short on ideas. He co-authored and presented a report to the SCRD last Thursday on the potential for and benefits of private citizens harvesting rainwater for personal use.
Bouman said it would be relatively inexpensive for residents to install large rainwater tanks to provide a constant source of non-potable water for things like watering gardens and lawns and washing vehicles.
"It's a much more cost-effective approach to increasing the supply of water than trying to increase the output of the water treatment plant," he said.
