Students participate in water monitoring initiative

BY ELYSE AMEND

Elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

It may have been a cold and cloudy day on Sunday, but the dreary weather didn’t stop a group of Marianopolis College students from getting outside to participate in World Water Monitoring Day (WWMD) in Pointe Claire.

Started in 2002 by America’s Clean Water Foundation (ACWF)’s president and CEO Roberta Savage, WWMD is an initiative that promotes education and awareness about protecting water resources. While WWMD’s official date is on Sept. 18, participants go out and test samples from local bodies of water between Sept. 18 and Oct. 18, and then register their findings on the WWMD website www.worldwatermonitoringday.org) to be analyzed by water quality scientists. Last year, about 3,600 sites in 39 countries were tested.

Kirkland resident and second year Honours Health Science student at Marianopolis Zubda Talat, 18, first became interested in WWMD after participating in the International Water Association (IWA) annual conference in New Brunswick this past summer.

“We hear a lot about global warming and different types of pollution, which are also important issues to address. However, some equally important issues are water pollution, water depletion, the health of water bodies and water sanitation,” Talat said. “At the IWA conference, I realized that there were people in the world who did not have access to clean drinking water or had to walk miles to get it. I was shocked to learn that in certain places in the world, where there is a lack of water, people use urine to irrigate crops which leads to disease in the community.”

Back in Montreal, Talat formed the World Water Effect (WWE) club at Marianopolis at the beginning of this semester to get more students involved, and to build public awareness about the importance of protecting water quality. Its membership has grown to over 70.

On Sunday, 15 WWE members took samples and tested the Lake St. Louis water across the street from the Pointe Claire water treatment plant on Lakeshore Road. They looked at the four “snapshot” factors: temperature, pH level, turbidity (clarity) and dissolved oxygen.

“I was amazed at what a lengthy procedure it is to turn the river water into drinking water and how we take this luxury for granted,” Talat said, adding the location was chosen because of its easy accessibility. “Also, taking data for the water that is near the inlet of the plant is much more interesting and valuable, because it is the water that eventually ends up coming out of our taps at home.”

Second year arts and sciences student Laura Gareau, 18, took part in WWMD because of the big picture.

“I think that as healthy water becomes a more and more sought after commodity – usually due to pollution – it is important for individuals to do their part to keep local bodies of water clean so that they can be used and enjoyed by everyone, while preserving them for the future generations,” she said. “By reporting our findings, we are not only showing the larger community that we care about our local bodies of water; we are also contributing to the ever-growing bank of scientific knowledge, which will hopefully be used to improve local and global environments.”

At the end of the day, the results seemed to be good: the temperature was at 16 degrees Celsius; dissolved oxygen was at four parts per million (ppm), the turbidity was at 40 JTU (a little on the high side, which was to be expected due to sand and seaweed at the test site), and the pH level was between seven and eight.

“Which is a bit on the basic side, but not too harmful,” Talat said. “West Islanders will be reassured to know that these results are all within a normal range.”