In 2021, regulations that set the limits for direct discharges of toxic pollutants to Ontario’s lakes and rivers were repealed. This leaves Ontario with no sectoral standards for industrial water pollution.
This mural depicts a glass of drinking water being filled with water from Lake Ontario. Lake Ontario provides drinking water to 9 million people.
Showing a fantastical depiction of waste, the mural “Water is Life” imagines what it would be like if invisible contaminants were instead obvious.
This mural asks: How would we act if the microplastics that can never be fully filtered from our drinking water were visible?
How much more concerned would we be if we could witness, with our bare eyes, the increasing threat to our drinking water.
I hope that my mural will serve as a reminder that protecting and healing our bodies of water is work that we cannot afford to lose sight of.