MONTREAL - The president of a major European water research institute says Canada's wasteful and polluting ways have set a bad example for the increasingly parched planet.

Riccardo Petrella says Canada's neglect of its vast freshwater resources has left the country rich in polluted water.

Petrella also fears Canada will cave to pressure from the United States and export its freshwater as a commodity.

He says all of this is happening while more than a billion people around the world still don't have safe drinking water.

Speaking in Montreal today Wednesday 21st April at the Millennium Summit on international development, Petrella said 2.6 billion don't even have access to a toilet.

But he says if world economies pooled together to invest $30 billion that would at least give those people access to public toilets.