A New Narrative for the
Freshwater Commons
There are two competing
narratives about
the earth’s freshwater
resources being played
out in the 21st century.
On one side is a powerful
clique of decision makers,
heads of some powerful
states, international trade
and financial institutions, and transnational
corporations. They do not view
water as part of the global Commons or
a public trust, but as a commodity to
be bought and sold on the open market.
On the other side is a global grassroots
movement of local communities, the
poor, slum dwellers, women, indigenous
peoples, peasants and small farmers
working with environmentalists, human
rights activists, progressive water managers
and experts in both the global North
and the global South. They see water as
a Commons and seek to provide water
for all of nature and all humans.
There is a tense – and globally threatening
– relationship between these two
prominent narratives and ways for the
life-affirming water Commons to be
used as a framework to bring water
justice to all.
Towards an understanding
of the Commons
In recent years, some very important
work has been done to create a renewed
awareness of an ancient concept known
as “the Commons.” In most traditional
societies, it was assumed that what
belonged to one belonged to all. Many
indigenous societies to this day cannot
conceive of denying a person or a
family basic access to food, air, land,
water and livelihood. Many modern societies extended the same concept of
universal access to the notion of a social
Commons, creating education, health
care and social security for all members
of the community. Since adopting the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
in 1948, governments are obliged to
protect the human rights, cultural diversity
and food security of their citizens.
American Commons pioneer and
journalist Jonathan Rowe captures the
essence of the concept: “The commons
is the vast realm that lies outside
of both the economic market and the
institutional state, and that all of us
typically use without toll or price. The
atmosphere and oceans, languages and
culture, the stores of human knowledge
and wisdom, the informal support systems
of community, the peace and quiet
we crave, the generic building blocks
of life – these are all aspects of the
commons.” Noted Canadian environmentalist
Richard Bocking says that the
Commons are those things to which we
have rights just by being a member of
the human family: “The air we breathe,
the fresh water we drink, the seas, forests,
and mountains, the genetic heritage
through which all life is transmitted,
the diversity of life itself.” Commons
is synonymous with community, cooperation
and respect for the rights and
preferences of others, he adds. Some Commons, such as the atmosphere,
outer space and the oceans, may be
thought of as global, while others, such
as public spaces, common land, forests,
the gene pool and local medicines, are
community Commons. “The commons
have the quality of always having been
there. One generation after another,
available to all,” says Rowe.
Many areas once thought to be outside
the purview of the market have
become fair game; the race is on to, on
one hand, capture and profit from the
land, genetic, water, mineral and forest
resources of the Commons, thus turning
these Commons into commodities,
and, on the other, to use the air, ocean
and freshwater Commons as a dumping
ground for waste (thus passing the
problems created by the enclosure of
the Commons back to the public to live
with or clean up). More recently, the
social Commons of public health care,
universal education and water services
have all become targets for large forprofit
corporations, backed by powerful
global trade and financial institutions
such as the World Trade Organization
and the World Bank. These institutions
often limit the capacity of governments
to regulate and protect the Commons
on behalf of their citizens because it is
in their interest to open up markets, in
the name of economic prosperity, for
corporations to grow and compete.
What is needed is a counter-narrative to
the current narrative of individual ownership
and control as the best way to
manage resources. A new narrative, protected
by a legal framework of its own,
would allow us to manage our collective
resources for the common good. This
is not an esoteric concept. If we fail to
create a new way of thinking about
the planet and our role in it, we may
not survive.
Excerpt from the report, Our Water
Commons: Toward a New Freshwater
Narrative. Maude Barlow is the National
Chairperson of the Council of Canadians.
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