Canadian Water Treatment lauds 'invaluable' HTO
Toronto and its surrounding waters may be obvious topics in Coach House Press' recent collection, HTO: Toronto's Water from Lake Iroquois to Lost Rivers to Low-flow Toilets, but readers might be surprised to discover what else the collection of 29 essays washes up.
The collection unites industry professionals and grassroots activists to trace how water has shaped Toronto's cultural and natural histories, from First Nations peoples to wading pools. Mimicking water's shifting function as the regulated and the regulator, the book intersperses intimate insights with historical and scientific data. The essays recount past and extrapolate potential developments in environmental conservation (or lack thereof) and urban encroachment, sacrificing no detail in the city's municipal and ecological heritage and futures.
By recognizing the achievements of the city and the enduring attempts to organize and reorganize water and ourselves, HTO fittingly reminds readers that mundane routines are products of constructed phenomena and in turn, that we have astonishing power to enact change. Whether it's discussing bold strokes in public policy or more humble household adjustments in water use, the book is itself an invaluable resource when it comes to taking the proper steps towards a mutually responsible future. After all, when years of doing nothing has transfigured so much of our cities and our water supplies, the least we can do is be aware of the ongoing tensions present in the maintenance of our habits and our way of life and be equipped with an understanding that will enable us to imagine conditions that are otherwise.
Our past ideas of and relations to water have shaped everything from infrastructure to civic design to industry, and how we view and use water today will undoubtedly exact significant impacts tomorrow. To properly respect this influential resource and appreciate our very tangible interdependence, we need to stop treating it as a lifeless entity that must be bridled and downtrodden, but as a central force that is alive and able to breathe life into others. As one HTO contributor, Bert Archer, suggests, after years of incredible engineering feats, the final and perhaps most intricate challenge ahead remains that of re-engineering our perspectives on water.
In this immense undertaking, what surfaces from HTO's pages is the interdependence of Toronto and water — two elements setting each other's course.
