Canadians remain world-class water wasters

Among people who follow such things, Canadians have a reputation as world-class water wasters.

Among developed countries, only the United States uses more water per capita than Canada. Some developing countries actually use much more, but that’s down to a particular population-industrial activity mix.

Canada is blessed with one of the world’s most abundant freshwater supplies, but that’s hardly a good reason to waste it.

Steve Mertl is a regular contributor to Yahoo Canada News.

“We’re some of the biggest water guzzlers next to the U.S.,” says soil scientist Hans Schreier, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia and longtime researcher into global water issues. “We have the impression that we have plenty of water and we don’t have to worry about it.”

According to 2011 Environment Canada figures published by Statistics Canada last year, Canadians used 483 litres of water per day on average for all purposes, including industrial and agricultural uses. Residential use – what we flush down the toilet or use to make coffee – averaged 251 litres per day, based on survey results for almost 24 million people.

Newfoundland and Labrador was the biggest water user at 810 litres a day on average (530 litres residential use), while Manitobans used the least at 332 litres and 173 litres respectively.

The Pacific Institute’s 2013 World Water report shows Canadians withdrew 1,330 cubic metres per capita out of the country’s water resources in 2006, including about about 260 cubic metres per person per year for domestic use (household and municipal uses). The United States withdrew 1,518 cubic metres per capita (based on 2005 data) but only 193 cubic metres for domestic uses. (A cubic metre is 1,000 litres or about 220 Imperial gallons.)

The report qualifies the data’s accuracy based on things like age and collection methods, but the trend is clear.

By comparison, the report says our other North Amerian neighbour, Mexico, withdraws 727 cubic metres per capita, 102 cubic metres for domestic use. Down South America way, economic powerhouse Brazil withdraws 297 cubic metres but only 83 cubic metres for domestic use.

The contrast is even starker when you look at China, which withdraws 425 cubic metres per capita but only 52 cubic metres per person for domestic use. Nigeria, perhaps Africa’s strongest economy, withdraws 82 cubic metres, 25 per capita for domestic use.

Europe generally has a reputation as a leader in water conservation but the range is pretty wide.

Germany withdraws 394 cubic metres per capita, of which 47 cubic metres goes to domestic uses. The report puts Britain at 210 cubic metres overall, but 120 cubic metres goes to domestic uses. The former East Bloc nation of Estonia withdraws 1,344 cubic metres per person but only 40 goes to domestic use. The report found 97 per cent of its water goes to industrial use.

Numbers from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s most recent fact book paint much the same picture, showing freshwater abstractions (water withdrawn and used) rising for most member countries in the last three decades. Australia, for instance, saw gross abstractions grow from almost 11 billion cubic metres in 1980 to 24 billion in the most recent survey. It ranks just behind the U.S. and Canada in per capita water use, accordig to the OECD.

There are a lot of different ways to gauge water use. An organization called the Water Footprint Network looks at the amount of water used to produce goods and services consumed by people of a given country. The global average is 1,385 cubic metres per year per capita. Canada, by contrast, uses 2,333 cubic metres per capita annually, while the U.S. uses 2,842 cubic metres and China 1071.

Economic growth and rising populations often account for the expansion of water use but it doesn’t necessarily grow in lockstep.

Canada’s real gross domestic product has almost doubled since 1984 but water withdrawals have gone up only 23 per cent, according to a report by the Blue Economy Initiative, a non-profit group looking at the connections between water resources and the economy.

Some of that difference is due to the growth of the less water-intensive service sector as a percentage of the economy and efficiencies in domestic and agricultural use of water. The OECD fact book confirms that in 1980 Canada took about 37.6 billion cubic metres of water, rising to about 45.1 billion in 1990 but dropping to 42.2 billion by the beginning of the 21st century.

However, Germany, which went from 42.2 billion cubic metres in 1980 up to 48.9 billion 10 years later, had seen volumes drop to just over 38 billion in recent years.

Domestic use accounts for only about 20 per cent of Canada’s water withdrawals, according to the Pacific Institute’s compiled data, while agriculture accounts for 12 per cent and industry 69 per cent.

The vast majority of industrial water volumes go to power generation, including hydro-electric and thermal (fired by natural gas or coal) plants, accounting for 89 per cent of the total, according to the Conference Board. Almost all of that water goes back into the local watershed, though often at warmer temperatures which can have an ecological impact.

By contrast, the board’s report says, agriculture consumes a higher proportion of the water it withdraws in part because of inefficient irrigation systems.

One of the major draws on freshwater resources is the amount that simply leaks away. The problem is especially acute in countries with poor or neglected infrastructure, without the money to fix their water and drainage systems.

But rich countries aren’t immune. Environment Canada’s 2011 stats show that of the roughly 2.2 billion cubic metres Canada used daily on average, 673.3 million cubic metres were lost by the water-distribution system – that’s about one third.

UBC’s Schreier says a study of communities in the Columbia River basin spanning B.C. and the northwestern U.S. found some small communities using up to 1,500 litres per capita a day. A program to reduce consumption discovered much of the volume was leakage, in some communities up to 50 per cent.

You might ask why Canadians need to wring their hands over their water usage when, according to data compiled by the Pacific Institute’s World Water report, Canada is among the top five countries in the world when it comes to renewable freshwater reserves?

Canada is estimated to have 2,902 cubic kilometres of water, exceeded only by the United States at 3,069, Russia at 4,508 and Brazil with a whopping 8,233 cubic kilometres. China is fifth at 2,738.8 cubic kilometres.

Compare that with, say, Nigeria, which has a population of more than 178 million, a major water-hungry petroleum sector and renewable freshwater resources of 286.2 cubic kilometres. Or India, population more than one billion, a rapidly developing economy and 1,911 cubic kilometres of renewable freshwater.

The pressure brought on by climate change, population growth and economic expansion is will only increase the “water stress” many countries will be facing.

Canada’s in a fortunate position as other nations face potentially drastic changes in water-intensive food production, but some of that opportunity will be undercut if it doesn’t do more to maximize water management and conservation, says Schreier.

“We should use the water much more efficiently because there is a lot of money to be made,” he says.

(Photo courtesy Getty Images, graphics courtesy Stephen Leahy, Your Water Footprint)