(cross-posted to ChangeEverything.ca)

Despite the inconvenience to most and some real problems for some (the elderly, for instance, and the many restaurants and shops that rely on clean fresh water to stay, um, afloat), Vancouver’s boil-water situation isn’t a completely bad thing.

No, really.

Most of the time, it’s almost too easy to get safe drinking water in Vancouver: turn on a tap, and it appears. I never really have to think about there it comes from, how it gets here, and what happens to it after we use it. I’m guessing a lot of people have the same relationship with water.

Today, we’re all graduates in a crash course: Water 101, attendance mandatory. Suddenly we’re all thinking and talking about reservoirs, watersheds and land management. (I took a shower a few hours ago; it smelled like the ground in the forest… heavy on the compost.)

For a few days or weeks, we’re going to be more aware of our connection to (and reliance on) our local ecosystem than many of us have ever been. We’re going to see the direct link between investing in public infrastructure and enjoying a healthy quality of life.

And while that awareness will fade once the water turns clear and bottled water becomes a frill again, I hope it’s going to leave some permanent indentation on the Greater Vancouver psyche – a collective memory, even if just a vague one, that we can’t take all of this for granted.

One other thing: does anyone else wince to think that we’re lining up for bottled water while so much clean, pure rain falls uncollected all around us?