(Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

At one time, Karen Kun, 34, had to beg for an audience to hear her speak about what's in our water supply and how to conserve it. Four years later, and with a growing environmental movement, demand has increased greatly for her water journeys, speaking engagements and workshops.

In 2003, Kun launched Waterlution, an organization to promote water awareness and connect people working in the field. This year she published an essay in Notes From Canada's Young Activists, a book edited by Severn Cullis-Suzuki, the daughter of environmentalist David Suzuki.

Kun has found that water quality concerns tend to be more of an eastern Canadian issue, while quantity is mainly a preoccupation of the West.

Karen Kun

Kun spoke to CBC News Online about what's in a glass — whether it runneth over with pharmaceuticals — and how water quality and quantity are connected.

What is in the average glass of Canadian tap water?

Our water is very, very safe. In every major Canadian city, people can drink their tap water and it is high-quality, highly managed water. Some people will turn their tap on and the water will look cloudy in the glass, but it's fine. Just let it settle — there's nothing wrong with that water.

However, it does vary for rural regions, and that's why people should really learn about water in their community. One of the most water-savvy communities in Canada is Walkerton [Ont.]. These people are now acutely aware of water issues.

Also many communities of First Nations people have dreadful water issues. It's not unusual in rural areas across the country to have boil advisories, and that's not only in First Nations communities, even though I think Canadians should be aware and concerned about that.

People in rural areas tend to be more knowledgeable about water issues because they're closer to it. So anybody who gets it from groundwater supplies is much more in tune with even the slightest change, whereas urbanites are disconnected with their water and how it gets to their tap.

Are commercial water filters and bottled water not necessary then?

These are absolutely unnecessary. There's a whole industry around them. For example, it's ridiculous to ship huge amounts of bottled water into offices. The only time that water is useful is if there's a known contamination, and then it should be available. Like when you're on a train and the water is not potable.

It's big business. And what's sad about it is a tragedy like Walkerton, or the two people in North Battlefield, Sask., who died from a similar issue, has spurred a huge marketing frenzy — which is "Buy bottled water." You go to university campuses, and Pepsi or Coca-Cola own the rights to selling water on campus — either Aquafina or Dasani.

Previous generations drank out of fountains. Today, fewer water fountains are available, and your option is to buy a plastic bottle of water. We're not yet sure how the plastic affects us, and whether it will be worth the price of being hydrated.

Should we be worried about byproducts in our water, like antidepressants?

It could be a significant future concern. What's happening is you've got these excellent municipal systems that know how to get out the traditional things people flush. But the concern is everything that goes into our bodies comes out, including pharmaceuticals.

The biggest one is estrogens from birth control pills. Research shows fish populations feminized. And then there are antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs. Those three are the ones that come up in high quantities.

I'm concerned pharmaceuticals will be our next worry for municipal water supplies.

So flushing your pills is not advisable.

Absolutely not. Actually there's very little that should go down the toilet. Nobody should be flushing tissues, tampons or condoms. They turn up in waste management plants all the time, but garbage systems are much better for dealing with that sort of waste. The only thing [aside from bodily waste] that should go down a toilet is toilet paper, and hopefully as small a quantity as necessary.

North America is the quintessential place of making life easier and making life convenient. A really great example of how differently we think comes from one of my workshops. A Colombian student was shocked that we flushed paper down the toilet, because in many countries around the world there's a bin beside the toilet. Paper waste goes in there, and people get rid of it every day. And that would disgust many people here.

Dental floss and hair is bad because it clogs the system. Most cities have very advanced systems — there are exceptions like Victoria, B.C., that flushes raw sewage into the ocean. But with those particles, more work has to be done to the whole system. Floss and hair can clog when they pass through nets, and floss will usually get by the nets, which are meant to trap.

Is it true one toilet flush uses more water than a person in a developing country uses in a day?

It's reasonably accurate. Some people in a household in the poorest areas of South Africa are given an allotment of 50 litres a day — and they find that very hard to live on. A regular toilet flushes 13 litres. So if you divide 50 by a family of four, it's less than 13.

The United States has banned 13-litre toilets. Here we can get a credit, whereas in the States it's policy. In Canada we're very behind, as there are wonderful technologies out there for low-flow toilets. And yet it still isn't mandated. With new housing developments, it depends what the developer wants to put in.

One incredible option is called the Niagara flapperless toilet. There is no flapper in it. Basically, in the flapperless toilet, the chain, lever and flapper system is replaced with a tray of water that sits in your tank. When you press the lever, this flips over and pours from the top of the toilet tank. That creates a great force so you get a really decent flush.

Are there any more tangible stats? Like how much water does the average person in Canada use?

Canadians average out 350 litres a day per person. Montreal is one of the highest, averaging above 400 per day. Partially, this is because they have an older infrastructure, so there's more leakage in the pipes.

Water use really becomes a municipal management issue. The biggest push for water conservation comes from municipalities, because they have to meet our peak demands. What a lot of people don't realize, is on a summer Saturday in July, when everybody's got the laundry going, the sprinklers on and everyone's having a shower, the city's got to be able to handle that demand. But that demand is usually only a few days a year, and all the infrastructure has to support that

.

If everyone can bring those levels down, that's less stress on the city to provide large amounts of clean water — and it's ultimately cheaper for taxpayers.

Does it really help to be vigilant and turn your tap off — like while brushing your teeth?

People bring this up all the time — and it's a good behavioural mechanism to instill in children — but what Canadians are terrible [for] is taking incredibly long showers. Now, should we turn our tap off when we brush our teeth? It would be much better if we had shorter showers. I mean, 30-minute showers? People should challenge themselves to take shorter showers no matter how long they're in there.

Now, you have your extreme water conservationists — I applaud them — but I don't know that we'll get there for everyone. They shut the tap off, put shampoo on, then turn it back on.

But Canada's top researchers who understand water at its deepest levels will tell you that's not where our problems exist. Water conservation is really important, but we also have to be looking at industrial use.

What are our biggest sources of water consumption then?

The very top end is water use for [thermal] energy production — about 60 per cent [including nuclear and conventional]. When you talk about water, it's only so long that you're going to start talking about energy, because they're so connected.

Then, industry tends to be about 20 per cent. So think about your Alcans and your pulp and paper industries, with pulp and paper not being as big as people actually think it is. Basically, every industrial production has a cooling process. If you're using metal, you're heating stuff up and you're cooling it down, with fresh water — because you can't use salt water for that.

Next is municipal, which is at about 11 per cent. This is where households fall. People think if you conserve water at home, you're making a major reduction. It's excellent, but by reducing it you're just reducing that 11 per cent.

After that you've got agriculture at about nine percent, and then the last one to two percent is mining.

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