It’s no secret that bottled water has become commonplace for many Canadians. Beverage companies have spent years pushing the drink as a healthy alternative to pop or other sugar filled products, convincing millions of consumers to pay for something they can get for free. It is a trend that can be clearly seen in the sales figures. In the United States, for example, sales of bottled water ballooned from $3.4 billion in 1995 to $12.5 billion in 2008.

Drinking frountains have been gradually disappearing from the city, in favour of disposable plastic water bottles. (Courtesy: joshme17/Flickr)

With a little effort, I think we can all remember a bygone time when water fountains were ubiquitous. They could be found in parks, on school grounds, in public buildings, practically any place that could draw a crowd. But today, the trend towards bottled water and the ridiculous belief that tap water is somehow less clean or safe to drink have rendered the once loved water fountain obsolete.

It’s a fact that became painfully apparent to me when going for a lengthy bike ride along Toronto’s lakeshore this week. When I set out from my apartment near Kipling Avenue, I did so without any water in tow, naively believing that I would be able to find places to quench my thirst along the way. By the time I decided to turn around, near Spadina Avenue, I had come across only one fountain; it didn’t work. A 20-kilometer trek along the waterfront trail, regularly used by walkers, runners, bikers and rollerbladers, and not one functioning drinking fountain could be found. In other words, parched travelers would have no choice but to buy water in a bottle.

It almost seems like a cruel conspiracy, perpetrated by evil bottled water companies in cahoots with greedy city officials. When I spoke to a representative from the Polaris Institute, an environmental group that lobbies strongly against bottled water, he told me that convincing people to buy something they can get for free was the biggest corporate scam ever perpetrated. While I might not go quite that far, I do agree that something needs to be done to reverse this disturbing trend.

The people of Toronto, and those around Canada, need to start demanding that public, potable drinking water be returned to this city. It’s my hope that people will one day choose to pass on plastic water bottles. But unless we are given the option to drink from a water fountain, that day may never come.