The biggest threat facing the planet over the next decade involves safe drinking water for people and for productive farms, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2105 report.
This observation is sobering and astonishing, but more so in light of Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberal government and the South Island Aggregates consortium remaining hell-bent for leather on dumping contaminated soil within a few kilometres of southern Vancouver Island’s two largest freshwater lakes. Both are drinking-water sources and both lie in well-publicized earthquake zones.
The economic and health risks to the meat and dairy industries, farms and people, not to mention Malahat highway maintenance, are substantial. Added to these are the financial costs for future contaminant cleanup and lawsuits that will be dumped on future governments.
What does all this reveal about the government’s stewardship, leadership and financial management?
Brent Tilson
Mill Bay
