Site Map Science Matters by David Suzuki Science Matters is published weekly in newspapers across Canada. To post your comments about this week's topic, or others, please visit our discussion forum . Another Canadian community has been hit with a tainted-water scare, renewing calls for federal drinking water regulations.
Water is truly the stuff of life.
We can only live for a few days without it, and researchers say that life on Earth actually began in the oceans. Even our bodies are more than 65 per cent water. Yet in spite of our dependence on water, society still routinely undervalues it. For example, according to researchers in a recent edition of the journal Science, government policies continue to encourage cheap food production by maintaining artificially low water prices. These prices do not take into account the cost of managing and maintaining the infrastructure necessary to provide clean freshwater.