Vigilance over complacency
Phil Duffy
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (May 07/01) - "Many people tend to take a lot of things in life for granted an, unfortunately, safe drinking water has been one of them."
This according to Environmental Health officer Brad Colpitts.
"Ever since the Walkerton tragedy there has been a lot more public awareness on the importance of having a supply of water that is safe for consumption," he said.
"There has been a lot more vigilance on the part of the officials and operators when it comes to testing the drinking water as well. Everyone involved in maintaining the safety levels is a lot more conscientious rather than complacent," he added.
Environmental engineer Vern Christensen agrees.
"One of the most reported activities affecting the lives of people in the North has been the whole issue of water quality," he says.
There are many different types of water-borne bacterial illnesses and diseases besides the E. coli witnessed with the Walkerton outbreak.
There are more seasonally isolated illnesses like Giardia (beaver fever), and Cryptosporidium that affect the gastro-intestinal system. There are also diseases like shigellosis, which can cause diarrhea, cramps, and vomiting.
The thing about shigellosis is that it can be caught from drinking tainted water, then spread through human contact so that it can quickly turn into an epidemic.
"There have been cases in Northern communities of outbreaks of shigellosis in the past," said Colpitts.
There have even been one or two cases of E. coli outbreaks in the North as well. There was a small one in a small Northern community early last year, and a large one just over 10 years ago in a fairly large Northern community.
This is why constant conscientious vigilance is so crucial. It is also a sad fact that epidemics affect weaker members of society the most. The young, the old, and the sick or immuno-compromised all suffer the worst effects.
There are water-related problems that are unique to the North as well.
Freeze-up is one, expense is another. "One of the greater problems in the North when it comes to doing the business of treating water is the high cost," said Christensen.
This is because of the size and isolation of most Northern communities.
"The smaller the community, the more challenging it is to remove microbes from the drinking water," said Dr. Hans Peterson, executive director of the Safe Drinking Water Foundation.
"The majority of drinking water research that is done in Canada is conducted in the big cities in the south. This means that in the past, small communities were frequently left to their own devices to resolve some of these issues."
Universities that conduct safe drinking water studies are beginning to realize that they shouldn't be focusing only on problems arising in large cities, but should pay attention to problems, some unique to the North, that occur in small isolated communities.
Prevention is the golden rule when dealing with water treatment.
Peterson summed up his feelings on this subject.
"One of my favourite borrowed quotes comes from Louis Pasteur, who said, 'When dealing with a problem I don't think in terms of finding a cure for it, but rather a means of preventing it.'"
