Did you know that uOttawa recycles water? As in use it, get it dirty, and use it again? I'll bet you didn’t. Now, of course, you can’t just use it immediately after dirtying it, but with the right filtration system, the water can be used over and over. That’s what they are doing in the uOttawa Aquatic Care facilities on campus. So in honour of World Water Day, with this year's theme being waste water, we spoke to Bill Fletcher from the Aquatic Care facility on how they are reducing water waste right here on campus. The Aquatic Care facility focuses on the research related to fish and amphibians, so you can imagine they use a lot of water. (I asked why the frogs were all like this. I learned that this is how they relax, a little creepy in my opinion but you know, I am not a frog). The facilities currently use 30 Million litres of water a year! Wow. But 85% of that water is getting reused right in the facility. How you might ask? One word: Bio-filters. ...

(water fountain at the University of Ottawa) So last week was World Water Day and I have to ask a question, what did you do to celebrate? I know what you are thinking, "World Water Day... Are you serious?" You know, on a level I definitely feel you. Sure, water is super important, but come on... why not start celebrating air, or sunlight, or language? We are pretty spoiled here in Canada when it comes to a lot of things and I think that water is at the top of that list. We so take it for granted that it is basically forgotten that people used to have to take staggered showers not even a century ago. We hear about things like drought in the Prairies, but it is an alien concept to most of us. If you want to flush a toilet, you don't even think twice. If you need water to drink, you go to a tap or buy it at a store. The idea that there was simply no more water does not compute in our minds. The one beautiful thing about water is that we still recognize that it is v...

We just finished World Water day, and as Canadians, we tend to undervalue our water systems and exploit them ruthlessly through personal, industrial and agricultural use. One could argue that this is due to the “staple thesis” or Canada’s economy being reliant on the extraction and production of natural resources but really? That’s kind of a lame excuse I would expect to hear from someone in economics (sorry, sister). In terms of water, Canada is well off geographically. It is surrounded by three oceans, has the large basins of the Great Lakes and Hudson Bay and is riddled with smaller lakes along its surface- particularly in the Niagara Escarpment region. In fact, Canada possesses the third largest amount of renewable freshwater in the world following Brazil and Russia. However, Canadians are terrible at using their water. This precious resource is being exhausted by Canadians who each use on average 335L a day! Per capita, our country ranks second last in water consumption- followed ...