Economic Value
Source: Hodge http://www.flickr.com/photos/hodge/There are few products we buy or services we employ that could exist without the use of water. For example,
- 300 litres of water is needed to produce 1 Kg of paper,
- 215,000 litres of water are needed to produce 1 metric tonne of steel, and
- 1000 litres of water is needed to grow 1 Kg of potatoes.
Our economy is inherently linked to the continued availability of clean freshwater resources, for example:
- Recreational freshwater fishing contributed $1.9 billion to 1996 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provided 33,200 job.
- Commercial fishing in Ontario contributed $35 million to the Canadian economy.
- Freshwater commercial fishery in Quebec employed 1282 people in 2004, including 159 fishers, with earnings of $3 million.
Even our ability to provide power for our homes, businesses and industry are dependent on water, hydropower provides 70% of Canada electricity.
Unfortunately, even though our economy is so heavily reliant on clean water, our economic activities continue to threaten the sustainability of our water supplies. The quality of our water is declining as a result of contaminated water supplies from industrial and municipal processes. In 2004, at least 110,000 tonnes of pollutants were directly discharged to Canada’s surface waters. In the Windsor-Montreal Corridor, where considerable number of industries draw water from Lake Ontario and Lake Erie for industrial processing Lake Ontario was ranked of marginal water quality while the basins of Lake Erie were ranked marginal to fair to good from the west to central to east basins accordingly in the 2006 Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators.
Maintaining water quantity is also becoming an issue, in recent years 20% of municipalities have faced water shortages. Canadian industry is a significant user of water; in 1996 Canadian industry withdrew 40.9 billion cubic meters of water for agriculture and manufacturing. Many Canadian industries (96%) have a direct water intake supply, which they pay either nothing for or an extremely low fee.
The availability of clean fresh water is directly linked to the health of our economy. We must recognise and consider this direct connection and work to protect and conserve our water resources to ensure both a healthy ecosystem and a healthy stable economy.
Adapted from Krantzberg, G. and de Boer, C. A Valuation of Ecological Services in the Great Lakes Ecosystem Basin to Sustain Healthy Communities and a Dynamic Economy; Environment Canada's Freshwater website; Canadian Environmental Sustainability indicators - 2006; and Statistics Canada's Water Use, Shadow Prices and the Canadian Business Sector Productivity Performance.