Canada’s water abundance is so legendary, the relevant trivia is taught in school.

Our waterways are home to some 20 per cent of the world’s fresh water. But it’s important to point out a noteworthy asterisk: much of that water isn’t anywhere near where people need and use it.

And even if the water is accessible, it doesn’t just flow raw through pipes to our homes and workplaces.

It takes infrastructure to treat and distribute it — and as Calgary has learned in recent years due to breakages in an important water line, supply isn’t necessarily assured.

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The Bearspaw South feeder main has been patched up (again) and we can return to using our water as usual. That being said, given our recent water issues, we should be questioning what “as usual” means and revisiting how (and how much) we are using our drinking water.

Why don’t we always keep our showers short? Do we really have to turn our faucets to full blast to wash our hands? And does anyone out there actually run........

© Calgary Herald