Introduction
Halton Region is invested in delivering safe drinking water to all its residents. We monitor, treat, and disinfect to make sure it is safe when it reaches your faucet. We also maintain an elaborate underground network of pipes to get it to you.
Our drinking water comes from either Lake Ontario or groundwater wells. A water purification plant treats and delivers the water to homes and businesses through the underground pipes.
A guided tour of the water treatment process
Take a guided tour of the water treatment process at the Burlington Water Purification Plant.
How does Halton Region ensuring safe water for all?
Halton Region works to protect public health and safety by ensuring safe water for all in many different ways.
Public health
Without modern water systems, diseases such as cholera and dysentery would become a part of our everyday lives.
Halton Region ensures a higher level of quality than required by Ontario Drinking Water Standards. Our staff are highly qualified and dedicated to delivering safe drinking water, running tests every single day.
Fire protection
Did you know? The original reason for building community water systems was to fight fires, not to deliver safe drinking water!
In Halton, as in most cities, water flows to fire hydrants and home faucets through the same system of watermains, pumps and storage tanks. A water system that provides reliable water at a high pressure and volume can provide the ability to properly manage a roaring fire.
The ability to provide water for fire protection has an influence on:
- New home constructions
- Business location decisions
- Insurance rates
Support for the economy
Economic success hinges on a reliable water supply for the following reasons:
- Businesses rely on tap water for critical day-to-day operations.
- Tap water plays a critical role in the viability of new commercial and residential developments.
- The primary ingredient in food, beverages, toothpaste, perfumes and thousands of other everyday products is: water.
- Businesses build offices near safe, available water sources, proving a correlation between job creation and the availability of water.
- Scarce water resources can hold up multi-million dollar developments.
Quality of life
So many aspects of our lives center around access to safe water. Without this constant access, successful societies such as ours would not be able to maintain:
- Low mortality rates
- Economic diversity
- Productivity
- Public safety
Think about how we would complete many of our daily activities without water! How would we....
- Rinse our produce?
- Clean dishes and clothes?
- Water plants?
- Wash our cars?
- Fill swimming pools?
- Shower or bathe?
Businesses and institutions would suffer as well. How many would have to suspend operations or relocate entirely? How would our hospitals, firehouses, or schools function?