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Tap Water Campaign 
Metro Vancouver Tap Water Campaign

Nature’s Health Drink … Always On Tap

Metro Vancouver invites the region’s residents to make a “tap water pledge” to drink tap water in refillable bottles instead of buying single-use plastic water bottles. Our goal: Increase the use of tap water for drinking purposes by reducing sales of bottled water by 20 per cent by 2010.

Why Metro Vancouver has a Tap Water Campaign
  • Metro Vancouver is committed to reducing bottled water use by 20% by 2010 to reduce the environmental impact of bottled water
  • Millions of single-use plastic water bottles (one litre or smaller) ended up in our region's landfills in 2007
  • We want to provide a tangible way for residents to support a sustainable practice – using refillable water containers instead of single-use plastic water bottles
We have high quality drinking water
Metro Vancouver supplies tap water for our region.  The source is rainwater, which is stored in the Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam reservoirs.  Five hundred eighty-five square kilometres of mountainous watersheds are closed to public access to protect these large supply lakes.

 Come and See - Join us for a scenic tour of our mountainous watersheds

Metro Vancouver’s tap water is arguably some of the best drinking water in the world, and it costs you only about $0.8 per 1,000 litres, or $0.0008 per litre.  A single-use one litre bottle of water can cost you as much as $1.75 a litre.

When you buy a bottle of water, you’re buying more than a bottle of water
  •  the total amount of energy embedded in our use of bottled water can be as high as the equivalent of filling a plastic bottle one quarter full with oil
  • It takes more water to produce that bottle than the bottle holds
  • It takes 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water
  • The production and transportation of bottled water contributes to greenhouse gas emissions
  • Even if the bottle is recycled, more energy is needed to reuse the plastic

Zero Waste Challenge

  • With millions of single-use plastic water bottles ending up in landfills every year, getting more people to drink tap water also supports Metro Vancouver’s Zero Waste Challenge.
  • Launched in 2006, the Zero Waste Challenge has a goal to divert 70 per cent of our solid waste from landfills by 2015.
  • Currently, almost half of the region’s waste is now buried in landfills or incinerated in the region’s waste-to-energy facility in Burnaby.
  • Fifty-two per cent of our solid waste is recycled or diverted. Last year, an estimated three million plastic water bottles ended up in the garbage. Those bottles could have been returned to recycling depots.

Take the pledge to support sustainability in the Metro Vancouver region by choosing tap water over single-use plastic bottled water whenever possible. According to many international tap water campaigns, the total amount of energy embedded in our use of bottled water can be as high as the equivalent of filling a plastic bottle one quarter full with oil.  It takes more water to produce that bottle than the bottle holds.

  • The production and transportation of bottled water contributes to greenhouse gas emissions
  • Even if the bottle is recycled, more energy is needed to reuse the plastic

 Take the Pledge
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Resources

 Join in the Discussion

We use a multi-barrier approach to ensure your tap water is safe to drink:

  • closed, protected watersheds
  • effective disinfection – chlorine at the Capilano and Seymour reservoirs, ozone at the Coquitlam reservoir
  • extensive water testing (over 25,000 times per year)
  • watermain flushing and clearing

Once the new Seymour/Capilano water filtration plant is completed in 2009, we’ll no longer experience turbidity (murky tap water) from the reservoir.

 Metro Vancouver Launches Tap Water Campaign - Media Release, September 02, 2008

Fast Facts

  • Metro ’s tap water is arguably some of the best drinking water in the world, and it costs you only about $0.8 per 1,000 litres, or $0.0008 per litre.  A single-use one litre bottle of water can cost you as much as $1.75 a litre.