Divergent View of Health
Individuals understand the idea of health in different ways and their experience of well-being is constructed from their beliefs about what health means. Labonte (1993) describes two different views of health that he believes have surfaced over the years, the medical approach and the socioenvironmental approach. Of the two, the medical model, which comes from the scientific point of view, tends to be the prevailing approach to health. This view defines health as the absence of disease and focuses on disease (breakdown) – treatment (fix it) (Labonte, 1993). A medical view emphasizes treating or preventing disease by correcting problems in the mechanical functioning of the body.
The community meeting was organized for community members to have the experts present their scientific technical reports and to allow residents to "air their personal opinions" and to "talk about various options that were available". The majority of the evening was taken with listening to and questioning the reports of the various scientific experts. As I saw it, the technical reports and the Majority report about the water supply for Senanus Drive primarily stressed the fact that the water did or did not pose a danger to residents’ physical health came from a medical explanation of health.
Loen, Loen Hydrogeology: According to the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Safety, there’s no concerns related to health within the parameters we tested. There are some aesthetic objectives related to health. Aesthetic objectives are for certain parameters in the water may cause the water to be corrosive, deposit forming or unpalatable. These are given a separate category because they are not a health concern but they are a concern.
Bradley Chief Environmental Health Officer CHR: Chromium can be a problem when it combines with chlorine and goes to the trivalent state. This is when a carcinogen is formed. Chromium as it generally occurs in the water system is fine. It is a nutrient. But when we have to chlorinate a water system that’s where we have the potential for some problems…No problems with fecal coliform organisms…We do not have any problems relating to nitrites or nitrates that would be the influence of man via agriculture, farming, or pesticides, or run off from roads etc. We certainly agree with Mr. Loen’s statement that there are no health concerns indicated for the Senanus Peninsula aquifer from our sampling program…There is still a health and safety concern over the quality and quantity of the water in this Senanus Drive area…Our main concern in this issue is the promulgation of public health and safety.
The World Health Organization sees health in a broader context and defines health as a personal resource that includes social and personal assets as well as physical capacities. Health is the extent to which an individual or group is able to fulfill aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment (World Health Organization, 1984, cited in Labonte, 1993). It is an outlook that conceptualizes health in its broadest sense and means that we must act beyond simply dealing with disease-treatment, we need to begin to explore and understand how peoples’ experiences of health relate to their experiences of capacity and connectedness (Labonte, 1993). In a socioenvironmental approach to health, personal experiences of health are phenomenological experiences, constructed through social interactions with others and a shared repertoire of intersubjective meanings (Labonte, 1993).
In the second half of the meeting, the moderator invited community members to ask questions and make comments about the technical presentations and the options available to them. Many people questioned the integrity of the reports and made strong and at time emotional comments about their experiences living without reasonable quantities and quality of the water. These experiences occurred over a period from 30 years to three and one half years. Many of their stories related to their everyday lived experiences. Most of the resident statements and the Minority report placed importance on a broader range of health related issues.
Minority Report: We based our assessment of the degree of problem on Senanus Drive from predominantly testimonial evidence directly from the residents and from information like when they have a party and there are more than five flushes they have to wait for the rest of the weekend before they can get water.
Residents: this is our only chance to talk to this man who has made a report that influences our lives…My wife and I have spent in excess of $100,000 to supply potable water to our home…Well provided water for 2 years and then it changed in taste and quality. Used water for sanitary purposes and outside irrigation. Contracted to have water tanks filled on a regular basis…Built a private pipeline and increased the flow but this has made a considerable change to the enjoyment of our house.
I want to talk about the impact on the residents and the costs associated on the water main solution. I am ashamed when our elderly have to physically fetch and move heavy loads of water. Ashamed when the first rhyme we teach our children is "If it is brown, flush it down; if it is yellow, wait till it’s mellow." Ashamed when people in our neighbourhood have insufficient water with which to conduct health hygiene. Ashamed when our community would turn out in force to prevent a tree from being cut down but it would ignore the plight of fellow men looking for water.
CHR said ground water in the Senanus Drive area should not be considered potable. It is not palatable and should not be used for drinking water.
We cannot put a dollar figure on our improved health, the enjoyment of our homes and gardens, reduced fear of forest fire, and the freedom not to worry about the next drop of water.
We cope by going to the gas station and getting water there. Too expensive to buy. The stuff stains our clothes. There’s not enough to do things like grow gardens. We don’t have any grass. My wife has I think 6 flower pots and sprinkles water on them and sometimes the plants die because of lack of water.
We purchased the property 3 years ago fully realizing that there was a water problem but not until you actually live under these conditions does one realize what an amazing impact this problem has on your life. We couldn’t have flowers or plants (spent $4000 on landscaping). Water is so corrosive that it actually burns the plants…Showers, bath, dishwashing, laundry etc. have to be spaced out so that we don’t run out of water. If we run the water for 7 or 8 minutes, we run dry for 20 minutes.
Quality is worse than quantity. Had to replace a water tank that was new when we moved in. After a few months the dishwasher looks like it is 20 years old. Can’t keep anything clean with such hard, corrosive water. Replaced my main bathroom about 6 months ago and in my 20 years of being a contractor I’ve never seen such disgusting pipes and valves as what came out of my house.
We had MB Labs test our house. We were over the acceptable limit of arsenic. 5 times the acceptable level of zinc, plus other problems. Even small amounts of lead can contribute to learning disabilities in children. These are not comforting thoughts as you step into the shower, wash your dishes, or brush your teeth. Our water kills plants and plumbing fixtures, and MB Labs says this is not fit for human consumption. If I sound bitter well I am not. I am just very disappointed and concerned –I love the area, the people, the shopping and everything else about Central Saanich bit I hate the water. It’s driving me crazy. It absolutely disrupts your life. It does. It’s our God given right to have clean air and water.
All are supplied with water, a very essential thing taken for granted by most people. I don’t think anyone who has lived with the shortage of water plus the agony of getting it polluted really knows what it is like.
Chromium issue plus staining—can’t drink or use the water for any purpose,…It leaves a scale on your skin and it turns out that chromium could be carcinogenic. Catch-22 situation—can’t chlorinate it. Its got bacteria in it, so what do I do? I can’t use the water for bathing and feel safe and clean as well. Our water has high manganese and the CRD says that this creates biofouling of all the intakes and creates a nuisance. It creates that black precipitate. There’s dangerous levels of sodium and that creates great health problems for some people. Calcium causes encrustation of pipes and you have all heard how we spend a great deal of money replacing pipes and pumps. So there was a high biological activity in the water source. The hardness causes excessive soap consumption and scale deposits on pipes and fixtures, which in turn encouraged the build up of biofilm and regrowth in pipes. PH is very high and pH encourages scale formation and decreases the efficiency of chlorine in disinfecting the water, which we can’t use anyway because of the high level of chromium.
You can’t drink or bathe in the water, feel clean and safe, stains household laundry, can’t water our plants, can’t grow a proper garden, our insurance costs are 20-50% higher. We have constant replacement of pipes and pumps. We can’t clean anything in the house properly – everything streaks.
These comments from residents about health issues were concerned about quality of life issues that they experienced every day: They were concerned with broader determinants of health. Based upon the WHO definition of health, the quantity and quality of well water available to residents of Senanus Drive had many adverse effects on their health.
References
Labonte, R. (1993). Issues in health promotion series: Vol. 3. Health promotion and empowerment: Practice frameworks. Toronto: Centre for Health Promotion, ParticipACTION.