Doors Open Ottawa sheds light on our water supply

Photo: An illustration of how Ottawa River water is treated to make it safe for consumers. Click on the pic for a larger view.

More than 100 of the city’s most interesting buildings were open to the public on the weekend at the annual Doors Open Ottawa event. 

Two of the buildings that attracted the public’s attention were the Lemieux Island Water Purification Plant and the Fleet Street Pumping Station. In addition to being of architectural and historical interest, these buildings house important city infrastructure.

Guided tours of both facilities were offered to the public and many took advantage of them to learn more about our water supply, how it is treated and how it is delivered throughout the city.

The water purification plant situated on Lemieux Island was opened in 1932 – at the height of the Depression. There is nothing depressing about the building, however. Brass and marble fixtures are everywhere, and the various expansions and modernizations have not taken away from the beauty of the building or the island.

In the middle of the river, at a depth of 40 feet, a large intake pipe brings water into the plant where it is treated to make it potable. The whole process takes between six to eight hours.

The potable water is then pumped at low pressure to the nearby Fleet Street Pumping Station where it is pumped at high pressure (85 PSI) to the downtown core and the eastern part of the city. The pumping station was built in 1874 and uses five pumps that are run by turbines in the aqueduct underneath the building.

A second water treatment plant in Britannia takes care of Ottawa west and outlying areas.

The two water treatment plants can produce approximately 700 megalitres of clean drinking water per day. The average daily demand is about 300 megalitres.

Ottawa is lucky when it comes to water. The Ottawa River watershed is large (146,000 square kilometres) and is able to provide drinking water to more than 1.5 million people. 

That is not to say the river is without problems. Ottawa Riverkeeper maintains a list of issues it is monitoring on its website.

According to the City of Ottawa’s website, Ottawa was the second city in North America to host a Doors Open event, which is based on a successful European model.

Each year, visitors hear first-hand the remarkable stories that have shaped the National Capital region. As Ottawa’s largest heritage and architectural event, Doors Open has recorded nearly 400,000 visits since it began in 2002.

Photo: Pumping potable water from the Fleet Street Pumping Station to the downtown core and the east end of the city.

Teaching Canadians about refugees

The Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) is having its spring consultation sessions in Ottawa right now and hundreds of delegates have gathered to listen, learn, network and figure out ways to improve the lives of immigrants and refugees to Canada.

At one of the workshops, five new Canadians put on a dramatization about the difficulties immigrants and refugees face when coming to Canada.

The workshop – Educating Canadians about Refugees – sought to explain to Canadians the difficulties newcomers face when confronted with a new culture, language and moral compass.

Some of the participants performed monologues about the difficulties they faced learning a second language, explaining their culture to their Canadian classmates, or even the difficulties they had when shopping for groceries for the first time.

Others worried about whether or not their kids would fit in and feel welcome in their new home.

One participant – acting as a teacher – said she did not know how she was going to "teach Canada to so many immigrants."

The keynote speaker – Marta Kalita, Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council, spoke about the programs that her province has introduced as a way of integrating immigrant and refugee youth into the school system.

Trial programs in select Winnipeg schools were established to help students to adapt to Canadian culture. Many of these programs involved improving language skills, art projects as a way to express one's cultural heritage (through theatre, photography or storytelling) and a special program for immigrant girls.

Teachers were also given special skills training to cope with their new students. Ironically, the Winnipeg educators found that aboriginal children from northern reserves faced many of the same challenges as their immigrant counterparts. 

To learn more about the CCR, click here.

MAC announces a new foundation

Photo: Prosthetics for landmine survivors, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Mines Action Canada (MAC) recently hosted a webinar to announce the creation of their charitable wing  – The Walk Without Fear Foundation (WWFF) – established to raise funds to help eradicate landmines and cluster munitions.

After more than two years of work, MAC was able to meet the requirements of the Canada Revenue Agency.

Canadian donors will now be able to direct funds to the WWFF and receive a tax receipt for their contribution.

"Mines Action Canada created a charitable wing to give us an additional tool to raise public awareness and funds," said Paul Hannon, executive director of MAC.

 The WWFF will focus on five areas of programming: risk reduction (organizations accessing affected communities to help them understand and mitigate risk); survivor assistance (immediate trauma care, prosthetics, and the rebuilding of livelihoods); civil society capacity building (focussing on helping young people take over the campaign to rid the world of landmines and cluster munitions); monitoring and research (program achievements and treaty implementation); education and outreach (informing the Canadian public about the successes of the landmine/cluster movement with respect to the eradication of these weapons).

"One of the things we have discovered is that despite the fact that everybody in Canada seems to know about landmines, it is hard for organizations to raise money for landmine (related issues)," said Mr. Hannon. "Part of that is because people think that the Canadian government has the issue covered."

Mr. Hannon said MAC will continue to support the global anti-landmine movement and make sure the Canadian government supports the treaties it has signed and honours its legal obligations.

He also cautioned people to not be complacent about the issue.

"The more successful we are, the less news people see about the landmines/cluster bomb problem, so therefore they think the problem is solved," said Mr. Hannon.

"While I believe the problem is solvable and is something that can be crossed off the world's "to do" list, the job is not yet finished and we do need additional resources and political will to continue to get the job done," he added.

Funding will be directed where it is most needed. Canadian NGOs, such as the Canadian International Demining Corp (CIDC) are among potential beneficiaries. 

"Our goal will be to support both Canadian and international NGOs," said Mr. Hannon. "Canadian NGOs are not working in every landmine/cluster affected country in the world, so rather than incurring start-up costs, we would rather help them in countries in which they are already working and help our international partners in countries where they already have programs in place.

To learn more about MAC and the WWFF, click here.