Safe Drinking Water Foundation
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : i**o@s*******r.o*g
Mission Statement
Safe Drinking Water Foundation (SDWF) became a registered charity in 1998. Our mission is to educate the leaders of today and tomorrow about drinking water quality issues to realize our goal of safe drinking water being available to every Canadian. Our primary purpose is to educate students (the leaders of the future), community leaders, politicians, engineers, health officials, and the general public about drinking water quality issues and solutions. The SDWF accomplishes this by developing and distributing high quality, hands-on educational programs to thousands of schools, delivering webinars, holding student competitions, and maintaining a massive website with lots of information available free of charge. We are well-known for our water testing kits: Operation Water Drop, Operation Water Pollution, and Operation Water Biology. These kits enable students to test their local drinking water and other water samples and compare their results to the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality.
About This Cause
SDWF was founded by five international scientists in 1998. These scientists originally planned on helping communities in developing countries with their drinking water quality issues. However, they soon realized that there are large problems in terms of drinking water quality in rural and First Nations communities in Canada. Therefore, they decided to focus on those issues. SDWF started sending educational kits to schools in 2001. At first, only one type of kit was available (Operation Water Drop) and it contained only a few water tests. Over the years, more kits and educational programs have been developed. Also, the educational programs have been continually improved thanks to feedback we have received from teachers who have used the kits in their classrooms. Now, Elementary Operation Water Drop kits, High School Operation Water Drop kits, Operation Water Pollution kits, and Operation Water Biology kits are available. All of these kits are also available in French. Elementary Operation Water Drop kits are intended for students in grades four to eight and enable them to test their local drinking water and control water samples for eight different components: alkalinity, ammonia, colour, residual chlorine, copper, pH, sulphate, and total hardness. Students then compare their results to the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality. High School Operation Water Drop kits are intended for students in grades nine to twelve and enable them to test their local drinking water and four other water samples for 12 different components: alkalinity, ammonia, arsenic, colour, residual chlorine, copper, iron, manganese, nitrate, pH, sulphate, and total hardness. Students then compare their results to the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality. Operation Water Pollution kits are intended for students in grades five to twelve and include a digital TDS meter and a digital pH meter. Both digital meters are guaranteed to be reusable for at least two years. Students use the meters when they participate in a role-playing activity in which they learn about the economic realities that different communities face when it comes to trying to produce safe drinking water. The Operation Water Pollution kit is part of a larger Operation Water Pollution program wherein students learn about water pollution: what it is, what causes it, how it is cleaned up, what can be done about the problem, and what they can personally do about the problem. Operation Water Biology kits are designed for use with students in grades nine to twelve and educate the students about biological water treatment, a more effective and environmentally friendly method of producing safe drinking water. Students perform hands-on experiments to learn about chlorine, chloramine, ammonia, and iron. The cost of sponsoring an Elementary Operation Water Drop kit, which can be used with an entire classroom of students in grades four to eight, is $85. The cost of sponsoring any other type of kit is $170. Sponsors can choose which types of kits they would like to sponsor, to which schools they would like their sponsored kits sent, or choose to have SDWF send the kits they sponsor to the schools that are in the most need of sponsored kits. There are also four free programs available on our website for teachers to use in their classrooms: Operation Water Spirit (First Nations perspective on drinking water), Operation Water Flow (multi-disciplinary approach to teaching students about drinking water, touches on social studies, math, chemistry, and other subject areas), Operation Community Water Footprint (students gather information from their local water treatment plant operator to be able to calculate how much raw water is required to produce one litre of treated drinking water), and Operation Water Health (students learn what healthy drinking water is, what unhealthy drinking water is, and about diseases which can be caused by consuming unsafe drinking water). Most of these programs are available in French as well as English and some are even available in Cree. By using our educational programs in their classrooms students become aware of many different components and elements (copper, nitrate, arsenic, etc.) that can be in their water, and the effects and health concerns related to components/elements in the water, become much more aware of their water source and what might pollute it, learn about the different methods used to treat water, and learn about the effect the water's pH can have on aquatic life. After using any of SDWF's educational programs in their classrooms students are encouraged and supported in sharing what they learned with others and in taking action to alleviate drinking water quality issues. Students have spoken with their city council, held water education events, discouraged students at their school from purchasing bottled water, and much more. Also, teachers are asked to complete our online evaluation form after using any of SDWF's programs in their classrooms. This feedback enables us to continually improve and expand our educational programs, which is a big part of what has made them so successful! Since 2001, SDWF water testing kits have been used in over 3,200 different Canadian schools. At any given time, hundreds of schools are on the waiting list for sponsored kits. These teachers need sponsored kits because they do not have the funds to purchase the kits themselves due to very small school budgets. The following are some quotes from teachers who have used our educational programs in their classrooms: "It is great. Thank you so much for everything we have received from you. The supplies and equipment are wonderful, well prepared, easy to use for teaching in the lab settings." - Christina S. and Dorota P., St Joseph High School, Edmonton, AB "Very user-friendly! Students loved the program!" - Amy T., St. Catharines Collegiate, St. Catharines, ON "This is an awesome resource that is otherwise difficult to source. I can't think of an improvement for this fabulous program - Thanks!" - Paul H., Sunningdale Public School, Oakville, ON "These kits really add to our classroom learning experience. Of course, there are always cutbacks, so the fact that we can access these kits through sponsorships is so very appreciated. I have to get creative with using the kits provided because I teach science to 150 students in grade 8." - Haley C., R. Ross Beattie Senior Public School, Timmins, ON "The materials were simple to use and reliable. The students enjoyed using the digital meters."- Amy C., Sussex Regional High School, Sussex, NB "The kits really help our efforts to increase hands-on real-time learning. I didn't even have a pH meter before!" - Hayley T., Edison School, Okotoks, AB "Excellent resource. With school budgets being very thin, this is a great resource being provided for us." - Lee V., Stanley Knowles School, Winnipeg, MB "This is a fantastic opportunity to teach students about the source of their water and using it sustainably." - Gayle M., Moira Secondary School, Belleville, ON "This is an excellent program, providing useful materials and ideas for students." - Cheryl B., Gimli High School, Gimli, MB "Everything is always so well prepared - thank you." - Nancy M., Tantramar Regional High School, Sackville, NB "Thank you for providing this opportunity for our students." - Janelle B., Stratford Cogito Campus, Edmonton, AB Teachers can enter their students' results from the testing they conduct by using the Operation Water Drop and Operation Water Pollution kits. This data is then displayed on the map on the Safe Drinking Water Foundation Test Results Submission Website. This is teachers and students engaging in citizen science! In the future, we will apply for funding to be able to have experts use this data to write reports about drinking water quality in Canada. We also hold Student Action Competitions! Currently, we are holding the 2024-2025 Student Action on Canadian Water Attitudes Competition. These Student Action Competitions encourage students to conserve water, to encourage others to conserve water, to learn about where their drinking water comes from (only a little more than 50% of Canadians know where their drinking water comes from), teach others in their community about the source of their drinking water, learn what could pollute their local drinking water and teach others about this as well, and much more. Winning schools receive environmentally friendly prizes such as water bottle filling stations and reusable water bottles. Please contact us if you are interested in sponsoring a Student Action Competition in your city or province. We also welcome interest in sponsoring a national Student Action Competition for the 2025-2026 school year. It is clear that the five international scientists are still correct, we should be very concerned about drinking water quality issues in rural communities and First Nations communities right here in Canada. At any given time, there are approximately 1,100 drinking water advisories in place in Canada. Some First Nations communities have been under a boil water advisory for over 20 years. We need to educate the students, who will be the teachers, scientists, engineers, health officials, and our communities', provinces', and country's leaders, about drinking water quality issues and solutions. We need the leaders of the future to make better decisions regarding drinking water treatment.