It's a concentration issue, whether it's agriculture or whether it's urban development. Little research has been done in Canada to try to gauge the public health effects of contaminated drinking water. Most often, said Lawrence, problems go unreported. One or two people get sick. But the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga., did studies in the early 1990s suggesting water-borne viruses that cause diarrhea and other stomach upsets contribute to the deaths of several hundred infants and up to 1,500 elderly people every year in the United States.
Aboriginal communities face even worse odds.
Assembly officials suggest the real total is even higher. Lawrence said the one thing that would do the most to improve Canada's drinking water would be to set national standards and enforce them uniformly. Although Health Canada sets guidelines for safe water, not all provinces enforce them. Environment ministries across the country are starting to look at that, said Lawrence. In the U.S., such national regulations are established and enforced, said Fout.