Halifax to Host National Water Conference

The care, control and distribution of drinking water are among the subjects of a four-day national water conference being held in Halifax from April 28-30.

Nova Scotia Environment and Labour and Health Canada are co- hosting the 10th Canadian National Conference and first Policy Forum on Drinking Water. This is the first time the conference has been held in Nova Scotia. David Morse, the province's minister of Environment and Labour, will deliver a welcoming message to delegates at 8:45 a.m. on Sunday at the Westin Nova Scotian.

Sponsored by the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Drinking Water Subcommittee, the conference's theme is From Source to Tap: Protecting Drinking Water in Small Systems. Along with numerous displays, the conference offers a dozen workshops, forums and presentations during its three days.

Topics include the security of our water supplies, lessons learned from the Walkerton tragedy, water treatment technologies and financing of water treatment plants.

The event has attracted experts from as far away as Australia, Europe and Africa. The keynote speaker is Jamie Bartram, of the World Health Organization in Geneva, who will speak on Sunday on the effective management of drinking water.

Members of the public are invited to a panel discussion on assuring safe private well supplies on Sunday, April 28, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in Commonwealth Room B.

The conference is organized by the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association (www.cwwa.ca) in conjunction with representatives from various public- and private-sector organizations. Conference co-chairs are William Robertson, head of Microbiology, Water Quality and Microbiology Division of Health Canada, and David Briggins, manager of Water and Wastewater with the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Labour.