Opinion: We need to protect drinking water, not just treat it

Our drinking water comes from a kitchen tap — that’s the belief of most Canadians.
And why would we think otherwise? We pay our water bills, as we do our phone and Internet bills, and so we expect a safe and reliable service. And yet, water is a very different service.
Without phone or Internet we are inconvenienced, but without water the human body can survive only a few days. In a municipal-water contamination event local economies are shaken, health services overwhelmed, and publi