Extraordinary Acts Of Canadian Kindness

Nine remarkable achievements from the past year.

- Rebecca Tucker

To Save a River

UPPER LAHAVE, N.S.

In this era of environmental crises, it’s perhaps not surprising that Stella Bowles found one in her own backyard. What is unique is her determination to do something about it.

The 100-kilometre LaHave River runs from Annapolis County to the Atlantic and passes through Stella’s community of Upper LaHave, on Nova Scotia’s South Shore. Back in 2015, the pretty waterway was deemed by many locals as unfit for swimming, but Stella wanted to know why. The then 11-year-old was distressed to learn what was causing the pollution: raw sewage being dumped directly into the water by hundreds of her neighbours.

“I was disgusted,” Stella says, when she found out 600 homes were using straight-pipes to pump waste from toilet to river without any filtration. She decided to look into the problem for her Grade 6 science project. With the mentorship of a retired local physician, Stella learned how to test the water in the LaHave. Her results showed fecal contamination above Health Canada guidelines, and the project would go on to earn a silver medal at a cross-Canada science fair in 2017. But locals were boating on the river without knowing they were being exposed to potentially dangerous bacteria, viruses and parasites.

With the help of her mother, Andrea Conrad, Stella began to raise awareness about the LaHave’s contamination problem. Soon she was making local headlines and lobbying politicians. In spring 2017, the municipal, provincial and federal governments agreed to eliminate all straight-pipes in Nova Scotia by 2023.