Unit A

Module 1 ~ Lesson 3



 Water Quality

Water quality impacts the health of our biosphere and the people who live in it



Pollution in the Great Lakes


"Today roughly one-quarter of Canada's population drink from the Great Lakes" (Walker, 2013).

Pollution in the Great Lakes has been a concern since the 60s when high levels of phosphates were found in the lakes due to household detergents. Water is the universal solvent and does not distinguish between good and bad solutes. Once pollutants have been dissolved in water, it can be difficult to impossible to remove them from bodies of water. Click the link below to find out more about the dissolved pollutants in the Great Lakes.

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Drinking water in Indigenous communities


As of February 2017, CBC reported that 71 First Nation communities were without potable tap water (McDiarmid, 2017).

Many communities are without water treatment plants or clean well water. In 2017, the Canadian Government committed to providing safe drinking water to all these communities by 2021. Click on the link below to learn more about this complex undertaking.

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