Water

Water is vital to people’s health and livelihoods. In Canada, there is no national strategy to address urgent water issues and no federal leadership to conserve and protect our water. The Federal Water Policy is over 20 years old and badly outdated. Our freshwater faces crises including contamination, shortages and pressure to export water to the United States through pipelines and diversions.

The Council of Canadians’ water campaign is calling for a national water policy that protects Canada’s water from bulk exports and privatization, because:

The free market doesn’t guarantee access to water;
Bulk exports could open the floodgates to trade challenges;
Canada’s water supply is limited;
Public water is safer, cleaner and more affordable; and
Water is essential for people and nature.

Download the Council of Canadians 2008 General Water Presentation

We celebrated Water Watch’s 10th anniversary with a “Blue Summit”. Read more including the declaration here.

August 10, 2009 - Will Prentice’s plan promote privatization of wastewater treatment?

We are yet to see the details, but Jim Prentice warned Canadian municipalities in Saint John last week that they would have to bring their sewage treatment plants up to snuff under new regulations that would be announced later this year. (more)

The Blue Communities Project

The Council of Canadians and CUPE have launched a new initiative called “The Blue Communities Project.” Through the Blue Communities Project we will provide community leaders and activists the tools to resist public-private partnerships, promote water as human right at the local level, and ban the sale of bottled water in public spaces. More »

THERE IS NO WATER TO WASTE:
Save the Water

WIN! Simcoe County Councillors vote for a permanent Site 41 moratorium! (September 22, 2009)

Simcoe County councillors voted to cease construction and all further development of Site 41, the proposed landfill in Tiny Township that would be built on top of the Alliston aquifer. This is a tremendous win to stop Site 41 and has been acknowledged as a huge victory in our ongoing battle to protect water. Congratulations everyone!

View photos, actions and read more about Site 41 »

Poetic Social Mission: Moving Stars and Earth for Water Maude Barlow joined David Suzuki, U2, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and others as part of Guy Laliberté’s Poetic Social Mission to space to help raise awareness about important water issues around the world.

You can watch this global artistic event on onedrop.org (Maude appears in the London segment).

Winnipeg's water utility

VIDEO: Maude Barlow on public water in Winnipeg, September 2009
Update: Winnipeg city council votes 10-6 for water utility
Fast Facts: Municipal Corporate Utility for Winnipeg’s Water and Waste, Lessons from Elsewhere, Report by Maude Barlow & Meera Karunananthan, July 21, 2009
BLOG: Council of Canadians on Winnipeg’s water plans
Letter from Council of Canadians to Winnipeg members
Meera Karunananthan, Water Campaigner for the Council of Canadians in the news:
- CJOB audio interview
- CBC report
- CKUW interview

Join the growing movement to ban bottled water in public spaces
Across the country, concerned citizens are visiting their municipal councils and local school boards to say that bottled water is an unnecessary drain on the environment and on budgets. More »

Our Water Commons - Toward a new freshwater narrative

The Council of Canadians has just launched an exciting new report titled Our Water Commons: Toward a new freshwater narrative. Written by Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians and recently appointed Senior Advisor on Water Issues to the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Our Water Commons is part of the ongoing work to bring together key activists, writers and thinkers to address the global water crisis by naming and reclaiming the freshwater commons. More »

Unreleased government report on water crisis in Canada

The Council of Canadians and MiningWatch Canada have made public a report drafted by Environment Canada in December 2007 revealing that the agency had documented crucial information regarding the looming freshwater crisis in Canada.

The report, titled “A Federal Perspective on Water Quantity Issues,” which was obtained through an Access To Information request warns "there may be heightened risk for jurisdictional conflict for water allocation between provinces and also between Canada and the United States." More »

Read the Report (PDF) »

September 21, 2008: Launch of the European Public Water Network.
Video from the launch at the European Social Forum in Malmo, Sweden in a very enthisiastic event with over 15 countries voicing support; featuring Anil Naidoo, Project Organizer, Blue Planet Project.

Blue Gold : World Water Wars
In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level as population and technology grows. The rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing and industry increase the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth.

As Maude Barlow proclaims, "This is our revolution, this is our war".

F.L.O.W - For Love of Water
Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question 'CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?'

Major bottled water exporters and importers

A map from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) showing major importers and exporters of bottled water around the world - including several nations that are both. More »

Visit the Blue Planet Project website. It is an international civil society movement begun by The Council of Canadians to protect the world’s fresh water from the growing threats of trade and privatization.

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Water

We celebrated Water Watch’s 10th anniversary with a “Blue Summit”. Read more including the declaration here.

The Blue Communities Project

THERE IS NO WATER TO WASTE:
Save the Water

Winnipeg's water utility

Unreleased government report on water crisis in Canada

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SECTIONS

Water

We celebrated Water Watch’s 10th anniversary with a “Blue Summit”. Read more including the declaration here.

The Blue Communities Project

THERE IS NO WATER TO WASTE: Save the Water

Winnipeg's water utility

Unreleased government report on water crisis in Canada

FEATURES

Search our site:

THERE IS NO WATER TO WASTE:
Save the Water