Today is World Water Day, a UN initiative that reminds me of International Women's Day in the sense that I'll be glad when it's superfluous, like a World Air Day. Oh wait--didn't mean that as a slight against anyone celebrating World Meteorological Day tomorrow.
In a land dotted with public drinking fountains, we tend to think of clean water mostly as an issue for people who live far away. While it remains a crisis in developing areas, water safety is increasingly pressing closer to home. The EPA announced today that it plans to tighten drinking water standards, restricting four cancer-causing compounds. (Hope my filter is working!) EPA administrator Lisa Jackson says that the U.S. must use the law to promote new technologies that address emerging drinking water challenges.
Perhaps we can take a cue from Canada. Recently the Green Inc. blog highlighted Ontario's push to become the "clean water technology capital" of North America. Ten years ago, bacteria contaminated the water supply in Walkerton, Ontario, sickening 1,286 residents and killing seven. Now the province's administration is introducing an act aimed at attracting more water tech companies--and jobs--to the area. Local company Pathogen Detection Systems is already developing low-energy probe tech to ID micro-organisms in water. PDS makes a self-contained, automated desktop testing system that it says produces lab-quality results. Stateside, I wonder if we'll be seeing a Cash for Contaminants program soon.
Photo Credit: Erich Ferdinand.
Tags: Green Tech, Health, Pollution, Water
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