The Waterloo school board made the decision in a bid to promote the high standard of its tap water. However, schools would not prevent students from bringing bottled water to the campus, provided it was not purchased on school grounds.
Ted Martin, the Kitchener trustee behind the campaign, told the Toronto Star, "The thing about bottled water is that you can just easily go to the tap - it's just as high quality and in fact is tested more often and more rigorously."
At school board meetings, attendees would be provided water in pitchers and drinking glasses.
The campaign to shift back to tap has been gaining ground globally. London and Venice had made similar pitches. Aside from the high carbon footprint left by the bottled water industry and the resource depletion water bottling firms had caused Canada's lakes and streams, the issue of safety once more cropped as the federal government discovered the use of the toxic material bisphenol A in the production of water bottles.
Amid plans by Ottawa to impose a nationwide prohibition on the use of bisphenol A, which may set the trend on a global scale, Canada's major retailers announced this week they were pulling plastic water containers and baby bottles with the deadly chemical off the shelves.
