G8 meeting: a thirst for water justice

Maude Barlow and Meera Karunananthan
Halifax Chronicle Herald
April 28, 2010

WITHOUT a hint of irony, Stephen Harper has decided to position himself as a champion of maternal and child health at this year’s G8 and G20 meetings, including the G8 development ministerial currently underway in Halifax.

What Stephen Harper fails to acknowledge is that women need greater control over the factors that contribute to their health and well-being. Charity-based models like aid packages are not sufficient.

Poor women in the global South have borne the brunt of neoliberal economic policies that have placed profits for transnational corporations above the environment and human health. They need international support for strong public services and healthy environments.

Take water for example. Canada has prevented the recognition of water as a human right and promotes the privatization of water services while Canadian mining companies destroy watersheds throughout the world. This has disproportionately affected poor women.

Access to drinking water and sanitation is the most basic element of maternal and child health. According to the UN, over a billion people do not have access to safe, clean drinking water while over two billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. This means that every eight seconds, a child dies from drinking dirty water.

Women and girls are more adversely affected when access to water is restricted, as they tend to be responsible for providing water for their families. In some parts of rural Africa, they walk 15 kilometres or more each day to fetch water.

While several countries are working to have water recognized as a human right through a covenant at the UN, the Canadian government has opposed it. Such a covenant would provide a legal tool for communities that are denied access.

Yet Canada has voted against resolutions to officially enshrine water as a human right at several key UN meetings.

Canada is also a strong proponent of water privatization. It funds and plays an active role within the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility which promotes the privatization of drinking water and sanitation systems around the world.

Canada also directly invests in private water through pension funds.

Yet experiences around the world show that private water has denied women their basic needs. In 2006, the UN World Water Development Report concluded that increased tariffs had made water inaccessible to the poorest segments of society in countries like Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea.

A recent report published by the National Network on Environments and Women’s Health highlights the disproportionate impacts of water privatization on women.

Throughout the world, the privatization of water and sanitation systems has led to steep rate hikes, cut-offs to the poor, deregulation of environmental standards and loss of accountability to the public. Women and female-headed households, being among the poorest in the world, have been most deeply affected by privatization schemes.

The destruction of water resources has had a tremendous impact on women around the world who play a central role in the provision and management of water resources. Within this context of growing water scarcity, Canadian mining companies are notorious for their disregard of the environment and human health.

In Mexico, for example, 87 per cent of the mining projects are run by Canadian mining companies that continue to destroy land and contaminate water supplies despite massive protests by farmers, indigenous communities and environmentalists.

Groups like Mining Watch and the Council of Canadians are hoping Bill C-300, a new bill that passed a narrow vote in the House of Commons in April 2009, will make Canadian extractive industries accountable for their actions abroad.

If Stephen Harper is serious about maternal health and child health, he needs to recognize that healthy mothers come from healthy communities.

And healthy communities require strong public services and a clean environment. Aid packages will do little to alleviate the conditions of poor women as long as Canada promotes an agenda of water privatization, opposes the right to water, and allows its extractive industries to destroy watersheds around the world.

‘Throughout the world, the privatization of water and sanitation systems has led to steep rate hikes, cut-offs to the poor, deregulation of environmental standards and loss of accountability to the public.’

Maude Barlow is national chairperson and Meera Karunananthan is national water campaigner with the Council of Canadians.