The Myth of Water Abundance

"The misconception surrounding water supply has deep implications for government decisions, as a number of political representatives have made statements indicating that they buy into the notion of mythical abundance. A misplaced belief that Canada has an excess of water will likely lead to decisions that will be detrimental to the country throughout future decades." --John B. Sprague, author of Great Wet North? Canada's Myth of Water Abundance, Chapter 2 of Karen Bakker's Eau Canada: The Future of Canada's Water.

As a nation, we have long taken for granted the apparent abundance of freshwater within our borders. Canada is frequently said to possess 20% of the world's water but in terms of renewable supply--a more relevant figure--we actually have only 6.5% of the world's supply, much less than Brazil and Russia and about the same as the U.S. And with 60% of our freshwater flowing north to the Arctic and 85% of Canadians living in a narrow band along our southern border, less than half of Canada's reliable flow of freshwater is actually available for use by most Canadians (2.5%).

In reality, we are much drier than many of us would like to believe. Large parts of Canada, such as the Prairies and Oakanagan Valley in B.C., are semi-arid. Lakes and aquifers that we treat as bottomless reservoirs renew at an extremely slow rate so that, in many cases, we are actually draining them for generations to come.

Our perception of the Great Lakes epitomizes the myth of abundance. Many Canadians see the Great Lakes as an infinite supply of freshwater, however, the Great Lakes are for the most part non-renewable resources. They were carved out by retreating glaciers and filled by meltwater thousands of years ago. On average, only 1% of the water in the Great Lakes is renewed annually by precipitation and inflow from rivers and groundwater. So our seeming water abundance belies the fact that only a small portion--the renewable portion--is available for use each year.