Editor:
I commend Nanaimo city council for taking a stand and designating Nanaimo as a Blue Community. This decision will benefit citizens today and future generations.
Some people are confused about council’s bottled water resolution [which resolves that bottled water will no longer be available for sale at city facilities beginning in October]. It merely reaffirms the values inherent in the first two resolutions.
If city council believes that water is a human right and that municipal water systems should not be privatized for profit, then it follows that the city should promote the excellent tap water it provides and not be profiting from the sale of single-use bottled water where clean tap water is available.
People will still be able to bring bottled water to city facilities and consume or give it away. The city is looking into bottle-filling stations with filtered water, similar to those installed at city facilities in many other communities.
The city could sell re-usable water bottles in vending machines — the next 10,000 refills are free! This won’t affect festivals — there are several island festivals where selling bottled water is banned and free Vancouver Island tap water is provided.
To justify voting against the ban, Coun. George Anderson referenced the concept of “timeless freedoms” ensuring the freedom of future generations through proactive action taken today. He wants to ensure that future generations have a choice to purchase single-use plastic water bottles from the city? Do we have a “timeless freedom” to continue trashing the planet, or is it time to be more rational?
I think future generations are going to shake their head at the concept of digging up fossil fuels to create plastic bottles, which are trucked around, burning more non-renewable resources so that people can drink water from them and then discard them.
Reduce is the first R. We have oceans and landfills full of plastic. Thanks for some sanity.
Paul Manly
Mid Island Chapter of the Council of Canadian
