Water is the most important element known to man. Sixty percent of the human body is made up of water. A majority of the cellular processes of the body involve water. Water that serves as a substrate for chemical reactions. Water also provides sustenance. Man can live for days with water alone. People bathe in water. Car engines and other industrial machines need water to run smoothly. Everyday life has always been greatly dependent on water. Because health and quality of life rely so much on water, its quality needs to be taken care of.
Water preservation is not limited to providing clean and safe drinking water. It also entails being responsible stewards of bodies of water where fishes and other wildlife reside.
Lake Ontario has been the subject of water preservation for communities in the GTA in Canada. Apart from being a habitat for thousands of fishes and other animals, this lake is the major source of drinking water for the communities surrounding it. The city government is active in ensuring clean and safe drinking water reaches the residential population of Ontario.
Operation Clean Water, a program created which instituted requirements for treating, examining, and sampling water quality, has been consistent in providing high quality drinking water and at the same time, in improving the natural water sources.
Water pollution cannot be isolated to a single factor. Sources include a mixture of sanitary, commercial, and industrial waste products that flow through the city sewer system and end up in various waterways. These waste products contain high levels of bacteria, toxic solids, and organic contaminants. Illegal disposal of residential hazardous wastes can also introduce toxic substances to the sewers. Garden maintenance of lawns and parks, which includes fertilizers and pesticides, contributes to pollutants in water runoffs.
City maintenance including road repair are also possible sources of pollution. Transportation spills on the streets and runoff from parking lots and residential driveways contain engine oil, and car care products that contaminate water drainage.
Ontario, particularly in the entire Greater Toronto Area, exercises a number of strategic actions to improve the quality of water; and, one of these is regular routine road sweeping. Road dusts have been known to contribute a high percentage of toxic loads to water runoffs. They come from the deposition of vehicle and industrial emissions from the air, left debris from road repair and worn out tires, and transportation spills of engine oil, and other vehicle products. Road sweeping is therefore routinely done on city streets to prevent the accumulation and transfer of pollutants to water runoff in the sewer system. Ontario has its own fleet of mechanical sweepers and vacuum assisted sweepers for better road sweeping process.
To facilitate better removal of road dusts, manual laborers sweep and flush the streets before the trucks make their pass. The collected debris is then hauled onto a hopper; after which, it is transported to a proper disposal site. Studies have shown that modern technology of mechanical sweepers has been effective in road sweeping in collecting fine particulate matter; thus, they have been efficient in reducing the toxic load in water runoffs. Aside from this, frequent road sweeping have also shown to decrease the concentration of pollutants on the streets.
Ontario has been very active in promoting better water quality for its residents. Their current road sweeping operations have proven beneficial in preventing the transfer of pollutants to their water source.
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