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Catholic schools to phase out CYNTHIA REASON April 26, 2011

The Catholic District School Board's (TCDSB) two Rizzos teamed up last week to get bottled water banned from separate schools across the city.

North York Trustee Maria Rizzo offered Student Trustee Natalie Rizzo (no relation) honorary credit on an unanimously passed motion aimed at eliminating bottled water from all 201 Catholic elementary and secondary schools in Toronto by September 2012 at the Wednesday, April 21 meeting of the board.

"Tap water in the City of Toronto is probably the safest water in the world, and we're lucky that it comes out of our taps," the elder Rizzo said. "I know that there are people who are addicted to bottled water and they think that it's safer and cleaner, but what it does is it has enormous economical, social and environmental problems that we do not want to give over to the next generation."

Last month, the younger Rizzo - a Grade 12 student at Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts - helped organize a student rally at the Catholic Education Centre in honour of National Bottled Water Free Day. The nationwide event and awareness campaign, led in the TCDSB by the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, encourages young people to take a stand in support of public water and against the privatization of water resources.

According to Development and Peace, which supports development projects in the global south, bottled water is the most conspicuous symbol of the commodification of water - with companies increasingly looking to markets in the global south for profits, despite the fact that the region is home to 884 million people without access to clean water.

"Bottled water companies represent a growing threat to the available water sources of rural populations in the global south," Claire Doran, director of Education Services at Development and Peace, said in a statement. "The packaging and selling of water means that this necessity is being transformed into a commodity that is only accessible to those who can afford it."

For her part, Rizzo said she and her fellow TCDSB students worry that, should such a trend continue, the world they inherit will be a place where clean drinking water is available only to the rich, and where bottles overflow our landfills.

"I must say that students fully, fully, fully support this (motion). This is a total concern and issue of the students...and I think that we can be great leaders in Ontario when it comes to this (bottled water ban) policy," she said, noting that the Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District School Board has already adopted a free policy in their schools.

"The province really looks to us to be stewards and to take the lead and we definitely are on the cutting edge when it comes to our social justice, so it would be great to continue that legacy."

After a short debate, trustees ultimately voted unanimously in favour of the Rizzos' motion that the TCDSB be a bottled water-free zone and start work towards phasing out and eliminating bottled water in all schools, cafeterias, vending machines, school and board functions, and all school board properties, with a target date of September 2012.

The motion also requested board staff prepare a report and develop a strategy towards increased education and awareness of the detrimental impacts of the continued use of bottled water and provide alternate means of providing drinking water in all board schools and buildings.

Director of Education Ann Perron said a preliminary report towards those ends might be available as early as June.

http://www.insidetoronto.com/print/998205[24/05/2011 4:08:00 PM] InsideToronto

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http://www.insidetoronto.com/print/998205[24/05/2011 4:08:00 PM]