David Liu: Walkerton Tragedy

Essay07/07/05
David Liu
Walkerton Water Tragedy
In 2003, there was a contaminated water related tragedy that happened in Wakerton, a small town located not far from London, Ontario. There were total six children who died and over two thousand people who got sick due to the tainted water. Through a later investigation, people eventually found that there were at least four reasons causing the tragedy as follows.

Firstly, cow manure was the main cause of the water contamination. There were many pastures around the town with over thousands cows on them. Before the tragedy happened, it had been raining heavily for two weeks, and the cow manure which contained a kind of fatal Ecoli called O—157---was flushed into the underground, and then it contaminated one of the three wells which were the major suppliers of drinking water for the local people.

Secondly, water system’s failure contributed to the tragedy. There was a big problem in the well’s chlorine purification system, and it eventually lost its function to filter the E.coli. As a result, the contaminated well water ran directly into the taps, and then, was drunk by thousands of poor local people.

Thirdly, the town’s water officials’ carelessness was another major reason. At first, although the local water officials inspected the water and found the E.coli. even one week before the tragedy happened, they hid the information on purpose and didn’t warn the local people. And then, when a large number of local people suffered from diarrhea and inquired if there were some problems in the water, the officials just said, ’No.’ Besides, they didn’t contact the local government and let the disaster spread widely.

Finally, the Ontario government also should take responsibility for this tragedy. They not only cut back the budget used for water and water system’s improvement but also privatized water testing labs to save money; this kind of privatization caused the labs out of control of government.

In conclusion, the Wakerton tragedy could have avoided if the local farms’ owners had had good control of the cow manure, if the water system had been inspected timely, if the town’s water officials had shared the information with local people and warned them in time, and if the Ontario government had paid more attention to the water supply system.