1. Fresh water as a natural resource

2. What do you know about water?
From where do we get our drinking water?
Is fresh water a renewable or non-renewable resource?
What is an aquifer?
What is a watershed?

3. How much fresh water does Canada have?
We're often told that Canada has some 20% of the world's total freshwater resources.
However, the real number is closer to 7%
Most of it is fossil water (water that has been undisturbed for millennia) retained in lakes, underground aquifers, and glaciers.

4. We do have a lot, though
Canada does hold a significant proportion of the world’s renewable freshwater supply. Most of this is found in Canada’s vast river systems.
The Great Lakes are the largest fresh surface water system on the planet. These lakes provide drinking water to 8.5 million Canadians and support a quarter of Canada’s agricultural capacity.

5. Water: renewable or non-renewable?
Despite the water cycle, not all freshwater is renewable. If a water source is used up faster than it can be recharged through precipitation, this is considered a nonrenewable water resource.
Groundwater is recharged at an exceedingly slow rate, and in many parts of the world, overdraft of water from underground aquifers has caused the water table to drop by several hundred feet.
Freshwater found in lakes is also not entirely renewable, as lakes are slow to recharge.

6. groundwater
Groundwater can be found almost everywhere.
The water table may be deep or shallow; and may rise or fall depending on many factors.
Heavy rains or melting snow may cause the water table to rise
Heavy pumping of groundwater supplies may cause the water table to fall
Groundwater supplies are replenished (recharged) by rain and snow melt that seeps down into the cracks beneath the land's surface.
In some areas of the world, people face serious water shortages because groundwater is used faster than it is naturally replenished
Approximately 30% of Canadian households rely on groundwater sources for water

7. aquifer : An underground layer of water- bearing rock.
Water-bearing rocks are permeable, meaning that they have openings that liquids and gases can pass through.
The top of the water level in an aquifer is called the water table.

8. What is threatening fresh water?
Industrial discharges and runoff from agricultural land, gardens, lawns, roads, and urban areas can pollute nearby lakes, rivers, and streams
Us taking too much too quickly
Climate change is changing where and how often rain falls

9. Canada’s watersheds
Watershed: an area of land where all the surface water drains into the same place
Therefore all precipitation that falls on a watershed ends up flowing to the same place.

10. Toronto’s watersheds

11. Water locked up in glaciers
About 2% of Canada is covered by glaciers and icefields.
A huge quantity of freshwater is frozen in them
They are found in Western Cordillera and the Innuitian mountains

12. Saskatchewan Glacier at the Banff National Park

13. wetlands
Wetlands are lands permanently or temporarily submerged or permeated by water, and characterized by plants adapted to saturated-soil conditions.
They filter sediments and toxic substances, supply food and habitat for many species, and are valuable recreational areas.
Some wetlands help recharge groundwater, while others receive groundwater discharge.

15. Where does Toronto get its water
The city of Toronto's source of water is Lake Ontario.
But before the water reaches our taps, it undergoes a thorough cleansing process, and is then pumped, stored and distributed.
Toronto’s drinking water comes from pipes up to 5 km from shore. These intake pipes connect to one of four of Toronto’s water treatment plants.
The largest and most striking being the R.C. Harris water treatment facility. R.C. Harris provides 47% of Toronto and York region’s water. In one day alone, it provides 950 million litres of water!

16. Future of fresh water
Many areas of the world are already experiencing water stress or water scarcity.
Due to the accelerated pace of population growth and an increase in the amount of water a single person uses, it is expected that this situation will continue to get worse.
A shortage of water in the future would be detrimental to the human population as it would affect everything from sanitation, to overall health and the production of grain.
1 in 8 people in the world don’t have access to safe water