What is meant by sustainable development of water resources?
Many Aboriginal peoples of Canada believe that one must consider the impact of any decision on one’s children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren seven generations hence to ensure that their needs can be accommodated in the future. Sustainable development has been defined by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment as “development which ensures that the utilization of resources and the environment today does not damage prospects for their use by future generations”. For example, industrial development on a river may involve activities that seriously damage our soil, water, and atmospheric systems. To make the development “sustainable”, environmental, social, and economic planning cannot proceed independently of each other. They must be integrated. Our water resources must be developed in harmony with the natural ecosystem so that neither the water resource nor the plant and animal life dependent on it are depleted or destroyed for short-term gain and at the expense of f
