{"id":9393,"date":"2024-09-05T11:04:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T15:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/?p=9393"},"modified":"2025-08-21T10:45:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T14:45:28","slug":"easy-drinking-water-access-for-all-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/easy-drinking-water-access-for-all-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Quality drinking water access for all students: for health and environment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Easy access to drinking water in all our educational establishments is an absolute must!<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>You thought we were already there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having access to drinking water is a difficult challenge for so many countries, a luxury even. In Quebec, we have no such problem: we have it in abundance! But despite having drinking water on tap, for a low-density population such as ours, we are avid consumers of bottled water and thus, we&#8217;re a major pollution contributor when it comes to plastic bottles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What&#8217;s our future to be<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We can&#8217;t say it enough: students are the future, our future! As University students or college students, they represent an economic power by their sheer numbers and everything they do, everything they will do, will have an important impact on the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www150.statcan.gc.ca\/t1\/tbl1\/en\/tv.action?pid=3710001801&amp;pickMembers%5B0%5D=2.1&amp;pickMembers%5B1%5D=5.1&amp;pickMembers%5B2%5D=7.1&amp;pickMembers%5B3%5D=4.1&amp;pickMembers%5B4%5D=6.1&amp;cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2020+-+2021&amp;cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2021+-+2022&amp;referencePeriods=20200101%2C20210101&amp;request_locale=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Statistics Canada<\/a> reports that in 2022, the post-highs-chool body of students consisted of more than 500 000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-9393_a5d2cb-ed .kt-block-spacer{height:60px;}.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-9393_a5d2cb-ed .kt-divider{border-top-width:1px;height:1px;border-top-color:#eee;width:80%;border-top-style:solid;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-9393_a5d2cb-ed\"><div class=\"kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center\"><hr class=\"kt-divider\"\/><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Etudiants-la-force-du-nombre-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"\u00c9tudiants - la force du nombre\" class=\"wp-image-9397\" style=\"width:700px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a good thing that the new generations are already aware of all the environmental issues our world is facing, they are ready to do something about it, as well as for their own health as for the future of the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Water waste and pollution<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We do indeed have unrestricted access to drinking water directly from tap, in most homes\/buildings\/parks, so much so that some of us will use drinking water to *wash* the pavement of outdoor parking spaces!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, we must admit that after lingering in the water pipes and being treated with fluoride plus chlorine to control bacteria, it may be deemed fit for human consumption but it&#8217;s not exactly the best tasting water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So it comes as no surprise that bottled water, which is often sold filtered and refrigerated, is so popular. Especially for students who have to rush from one class to another, it is a tempting solution. Considering the number of students in universities and colleges across the province, not counting the high school students as well, you can easily imagine the amount of plastic waste this generates and the major impact on the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Etudiants-impact-dechets-de-plastique-jetables-scaled-1-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"Pollution plastiques jetables\" class=\"wp-image-17284\" style=\"width:700px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: #0063ae;\">Simple solutions right at our fingertips<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The most practical solution by far is to use a reusable bottle that allows us to refill as needed during the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s simple enough, not only is it a more economical solution for students and for teachers! It&#8217;s also financially sound for schools and campuses which will have a lot less single-use plastic bottles to dispose of. But to get there, our educational buildings need adequate equipment capable of providing water, fresh enough that students will want to drink it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Current possible deterrents:<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #0063ae;\"><strong>If drinking fountains are too few to efficiently provide for everyone.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Etudiants-faire-la-file-a-labreuvoir-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\u00c9tudiants - faire la file pour boire de l'eau\" class=\"wp-image-9404\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, public schools and campuses must meet minimum requirements when it comes to drinking water access on location, but it&#8217;s also just that: strict minimum. If too few drinking stations are making it hard to find them or are creating cue lines to access them, it will discourage a lot of people from using them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #0063ae;\">If the drinking fountain does not offer refrigerated and\/or filtered water<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Etudiants-eau-potable-mauvais-gout-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9406\"><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>How fresh the water is will greatly influence its taste. A drinking fountain offering refrigerated water would be a great incentive to motivate students to use it. Also, filtered water tastes so much better and will make a huge difference for the user.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #0063ae;\">If there are no bottle fillers available<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A bottle filler is engineered to fill a bottle faster than a regular bubbler fountain, the bottle receptacle is built to accept all sizes of bottles, so it is more user friendly. To have a bottle filler set up with a drinking fountain also frees the fountain for other users, thus shortening any cue line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Etudiants-remplisseur-de-bouteilles-deau-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"\u00c9tudiants-fontaines \u00e0 boire et remplisseurs de bouteilles\" class=\"wp-image-9408\" style=\"width:300px\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By installing<a href=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/product-category\/indoor-fountains\/\"><strong> bottle filling stations<\/strong><\/a> on location, schools and campuses would allow students and teachers to easily get their fill of cool fresh-tasting water in a jiffy between classes, making a huge difference for everyone involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Updating current equipment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Many of our schools and campuses were built decades ago; some are really old and no longer meet the current minimum requirements. A serious update with modern equipment which is more efficient and would provide refrigerated filtered water, both from the drinking fountain and the fast-filling water bottle filler, would allow students and teachers to have easier access to great tasting water and that would go a long way to help ditch definitively the polluting disposable plastic bottles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A health issue<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Staying hydrated all day to stay alert, in the best fonctionning state, your mind will be able to follow, which is kind of important when you&#8217;re a student and your &#8220;job&#8221; consists of staying focused for hours. We know that a slight case of dehydration causes headaches among other problems, so <a href=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/water-daily-consumption-required-for-health\/\"><strong>drinking plenty is very important<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Disposable plastic bottle also generates microplastics that we&#8217;ll end up ingesting, causing all kinds of health issues. It&#8217;s the irony: they take forever to disintegrate, thus polluting the environment for quite some time, but they also disintegrate slowly, turning into microplastics nearly impossible to filter and create havoc for all living creatures, us being at the front row!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Etudiants-microplastiques-bouteilles-de-plastique-jetables-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Microplastiques-toxiques pour la sant\u00e9 et l'environnement\" class=\"wp-image-9416\" style=\"object-fit:cover\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In our own health interest, it would be good to avoid them at all cost and that&#8217;s the fun part: it actually costs less NOT to use them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Health-wise, to have unrestricted access to fresh-tasting water will help stay well hydrated all day, thus the importance of having enough water stations, user-friendly and wisely located, efficient enough to make a difference for the user&#8217;s health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A long-term investment<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The really good news: all great brands providing <a href=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/product-category\/indoor-fountains\/\"><strong>indoors drinking fountains<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/product-category\/outdoor-fountains\/\"><strong>outdoors drinking fountains<\/strong><\/a>, such as <a href=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/produits\/?manufacturiers%5B%5D=elkay\"><strong>Elkay<\/strong><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/products\/?manufacturiers%5B0%5D=haws\"><strong>Haws<\/strong><\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/products\/?types_produits%5B0%5D=indoor-fountains&amp;manufacturiers%5B0%5D=oasis\"><strong>Oasis<\/strong><\/a>, to name just a few, are constantly innovating and are coming up with exciting new technology like no touch activation for optimum hygiene, especially great during flu season, or smart energy savings feature that limits water wastage as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, new equipment costs money, but in the long term, that purchase will be greatly abated by simplifying the handling of that much less single-use water bottles to dispose of every single day! Consider the sheer number of students per school\/campus and the effect on the environment will be very impactful!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/flavored-fountains\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/KUPAhall.jpg\" alt=\"KUPA-fontaine \u00e0 saveurs\" class=\"wp-image-5252\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>There are so many solutions for schools and campuses to encourage staying well hydrated without using disposable water plastic bottles. On top of refrigerated filtered water drinking fountains or fast filling bottle filler, now you can add flavors to water such as with flavor fountain <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/flavored-fountains\/\">KUPA<\/a><\/strong> station, a drinking station that offers not only cold filtered water, fizzy or flat, but also healthy flavored beverages, again flat or fizzy, with many flavors to chose from for a fraction of the price of any canned soda. It&#8217;s a huge advantage, financially and health-wise, compared to overly sweet beverages sold in plastic bottles or cans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: #0063ae;\">Imagine the future!<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Just imagine a school or campus that would have almost no waste to manage generated from plastic bottles and cans, the dream!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, as students having to organize outdoor events, did you know you can rent a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/portable-water-bottle-filling-station\/\">portable outdoor bottle filler<\/a><\/strong> for those events?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ve all seen what it looks like after an event: the amount of waste on the ground is staggering and plastic bottles plus empty cans usually outnumber any other waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Etudiants-dechets-bouteilles-de-plastique-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"bouteilles de plastique jetables - d\u00e9chets - pollution\" class=\"wp-image-9423\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pollution-parcs-publics-bouteilles-de-plastique-jetables-03.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8675\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>With an efficient way to provide fresh water for all your participants and encouraging them to only bring reusable water bottles that won&#8217;t be left behind on location at your event, you will seriously cut the amount of waste to pick up post-event!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All this to say dear students, you are not just the future, but by your sheer number, you are an important force for the community in the present and all your actions will reflect on decades to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR CAPABLE HANDS!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" src=\"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Etudiants-notre-futur-notre-avenir-scaled-1.jpg\" alt=\"\u00c9tudiants-l'avenir\" class=\"wp-image-9413\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>You need more information about how to improve drinking water access in your school or on about that blog?<br>Contact us by phone <a href=\"tel:8666602858\">1 866 660 2858<\/a>, or write to us at <a data-linkindex=\"3\" href=\"mailto:info@sanifontaines.ca\">info@sanifontaines.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All drinking fountains and bottle fillers in our educational establishments should provide fresh, filtered, great-tasting water for all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9393"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17473,"href":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9393\/revisions\/17473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanifontaines.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}