Speakers at the Friday Lunch Discussion Club at the Ottawa Y are always interesting. The most recent was the most interesting and worth while talk I’ve heard since I was invited to join this club. Meredith Brown is a very impressive, articulate young woman, qualified in engineering and biological sciences. She is the executive director of the NGO called the Ottawa Riverkeeper. Her aim is to ensure that the Ottawa River water is drinkable, swimmable and fishable – in other words, to do whatever is necessary to maintain the integrity of the Ottawa River catchment area ecosystem. She described what she does in one of the best talks I’ve heard for several years. The Ottawa River is a very large fresh water ecosystem with a catchment area about the size of Western Europe; the river water is used for drinking, sanitation, hydro-electric power generation, cleansing, nourishing vegetation, recreation (swimming, fishing, white water rafting,ski-ing, snow-shoeing, etc) by 90 municipalities, the largest of course being the conurbation of Ottawa-Gatineau with a population of over one and a quarter million. Some, but by no means all municipalities give a little money to the Ottawa Riverkeeper NGO. Additional but very modest support comes from federal and provincial governments, a few corporations and private donors. Collectively it’s just enough to pay modest salaries to the Riverkeeper and a very small staff. This handful of dedicated staff measures and monitors the quality, quantity, uses and misuses of the river water, engages in advocacy, education and interaction with concerned agencies, interest groups and individuals at federal, provincial and local level. There is a huge amount of work to be done. As an example, Meredith Brown told the sad story of fresh water eels, which mature upstream in the headwaters of rivers, return to the oceans to breed – reversing the migrations of salmon, for instance. These eels are extinct in the Ottawa River system because their migratory route is blocked by numerous dams and hydroelectric power plants. All that would be required for their survival is a series of fish ladders to enable them to get past these obstructions. Fish ladders are ridiculously cheap, just a few thousand dollars each. I was more than usually interested. I was hoping to hear some clues about her perspectives on the interactions of ecosystem health and human health. Predictably, I didn’t hear a lot on this important but tantalizing issue. Intuitively we would all like to believe there is a close correlation between ecosystem health and human health but sometimes it can be very difficult to demonstrate. Swamps, flood plain lagoons and tidal wetlands can be healthy ecosystems, but if they are havens for insect vectors like mosquitoes that carry malaria, dengue or viral encephalitis, they can be serious or even grave dangers to health. On the other hand, a wetland can be so heavily polluted with petrochemicals, heavy metals or other toxic substances that wildlife, migratory birds, endangered species, are exterminated for ever, while people in adjoining cities remain healthy. After listening to Meredith Brown, the Ottawa Riverkeeper, I cheerfully donated to her NGO, and would be happy to bounce a few ideas around with her about ways to explore further the fascinating, sometimes perplexing relationship of human and ecosystem health. Incidentally, that term 'Riverkeeper' is perfect. At first glance there may be a warm and fuzzy impression, but on reflection, I find the notion of keeping the river, keeping its integrity intact, a powerful symbol of care for essential life-sustaining ecosystems.
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