How good is it?

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Global

• In the developing world, more than 90% of sewage and 70% of industrial wastes are dumped untreated into surface waters where they pollute water supplies and coastal waters.
  
  
• There are 2 in 10 people in the world who do not have access to safe and affordable drinking water and 5 in 10 do not have access to adequate sanitation.

Safe water and sanitation [205 Kb]

• An additional 816 million people acquired access to safe drinking water between 1990 and 2000. But the number of people unserved remains roughly the same – 1.1 billion – because the population grew by nearly as many people as gained access.
  
  
• Each year 3 to 4 million people die of waterborne diseases, including 2 million children who die of diarrhea.
  
  
• More than half of all desalination (converting salt water to fresh water) capacity is in the Middle East-Arabian Gulf-North Africa regions. Nearly 25% of all capacity is in Saudi Arabia, followed by 16% in the United States, 10% in the United Arab Emirates, and 7% in Kuwait.
  
  
• By the late 1990s, the total amount of desalinated water produced in an entire year was about as much as the world used in fourteen hours.
  
  

Canada

• Contamination of aquatic ecosystems by long-range transport of airborne pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide causing acid rain, is a concern in Canada.
  Just over 45% of Canada's total surface area is highly sensitive to acid rain. Much of this area is in eastern Canada where the Canadian Shield has little ability to neutralize acidic pollutants.
  
  

Canadian Shield no shield against acid rain [412 Kb]

• By 2003, under the St. Lawrence Action Plan, toxicity of effluent discharged into the river by 50 of the most polluting industrial plants had been reduced by 96%; 80 plants attained their toxic effluent reduction objective and 11 persistent bioaccumulative toxic substances were virtually eliminated.
  
  
• In 1999, 97% of the municipal population received some form of sewage treatment and secondary or tertiary treatment was provided to 78% of the municipal population.

Closing in on 100 percent wastewater treatment [197 Kb]

• Municipal wastewater discharges represent one of the largest sources of pollutant releases by volume to Canadian waters.
  
  
• Federal, provincial and territorial governments have collaborated to develop voluntary Canadian Water Quality Guidelines in six categories: for protection of aquatic life, for protection of agricultural water uses, for drinking water, for recreation, sediment quality guidelines for the protection of aquatic life and tissue residue guidelines for the protection wildlife consumers of aquatic biota. The provinces and territories use these guidelines when creating their own enforceable standards, objectives, or guidelines.
  
  
• Canadian Drinking Water Quality Guidelines help protect the health of Canadians by establishing maximum acceptable concentrations for substances found in water used for drinking. To date, guidelines have been established for more than 85 physical, chemical, and biological attributes of water quality. The guidelines apply to all public and private drinking water supplies and to treated or finished water as it emerges from the tap.
  
  
• Between 1974 and 1996, over 200 outbreaks of infectious disease associated with drinking water were reported. There were greater than 8000 confirmed cases linked to these outbreaks. In 2000, in Walkerton, Ontario, 7 people died and 2500 became ill due to waterborne pathogens in their drinking water.
  
  
• Health problems related to water pollution in general are estimated to cost Canadians $300 million per year.
  
  
• Municipal waste water – largely human waste – is the largest point source of nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) releases to the Canadian environment. In 1999, about 82 750 tonnes of total nitrogen and 4 950 tonnes of total phosphorus were released to lakes, rivers, and coastal waters from municipal sewage.
  
  
• In the Canadian Great Lakes region, urban runoff discharges annually in the order of 10⁵ tonnes of suspended solids, 10⁴ tonnes of chloride, 10³ tonnes of oil and grease, and 10² to 10³ tonnes of trace metals.

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