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 The Federal Water Policy is over 20 years old and badly outdated.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

Win! UN General Assembly passes historic Human Right to Water and Sanitation resolution

On July 28, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly agreed to a resolution declaring the human right to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation.” The resolution, presented by the Bolivian government, had 122 countries vote in its favour, while 41 countries – including Canada – abstained.

For more than a decade the water justice movement, including the Council of Canadians' Blue Planet Project, has been calling for UN leadership on this critical issue. Right now nearly 2billion people live in water-stressed areas of the world and 3 billion have no running water within a kilometre of their homes. Every eight seconds, a child dies of water-borne disease – deaths that would be easily preventable with access to clean, safe water.

“This is truly an historic day,” said Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians who was at the UN meeting for the vote. ”When the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights was written, no one could foresee a day when water would be a contested area. But in 2010, it is not an exaggeration to say that the lack of access to clean water is the greatest human rights violation in the world.” Barlow was joined for the important vote by the Council of Canadians’ National Water Campaigner Meera Karunananthan and Blue Planet Project Organizer Anil Naidoo.

To read more about the urgent need for the human right to water and the Canadian government’s shameful position against it go here.

For additional resources visit our Blue Planet project website.

Water markets

Council joins groups in Alberta saying: Our Water is Not for Sale!

The Council of Canadians has joined with almost 50 organizations and high-profile individuals in Alberta in the Our Water is Not for Sale campaign, which includes a broad network of environmental groups, First Nations, social justice organizations, farmers, land owners, small businesses, municipal politicians, academics and members of the faith community opposed to the provincial government’s plans to introduce legislation to create a province-wide, deregulated water market.

The network released an open letter in opposition to water markets, calling on the government to fully investigate non-market solutions to the growing water crisis in the province, and to hold broad and meaningful consultation with Albertans and First Nations governments before implementing any changes to the current Water Act.

The open letter can be signed by organizations and individuals in Alberta on the network’s website at www.ourwaterisnotforsale.com. The website also contains background information, additional action steps people can take and experiences from other jurisdictions that have implemented water markets.

For more information about our work to stop water markets in Alberta go here.

‘Water On The Table’

A documentary featuring Maude Barlow by filmmaker Liz Marshall. The film highlights Maude’s work to have water recognized as a human right at the United Nations, to stop the Site 41 landfill in Simcoe County, and to stop the destruction wrought by the tar sands in northern Alberta. DVD version is available for sale at www.wateronthetable.com

Women and Water in Canada: The Significance of Privatization and Commercialization Trends for Women’s Health

Submission to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Read the report here »

Prepared for the National Network on Environments and Women’s Health with the involvement of: The Council of Canadians, Women and Health Care Reform, Prairie Women’s Health Centre of Excellence, March 2010

Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
Investing in private, for-profit water services in Chile

The Council of Canadians has launched a campaign calling on the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) to stop investing in private, for-profit water services in Chile. Read more »

If you are a teacher, or a former teacher, please click here to sign the petition calling on the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan to divest from private water in Chile.

Blue Summit: From Ottawa to Copenhagen

The “Blue Summit” held in Ottawa from November 27-29 was a tremendous success. The three-day conference drew more than 300 participants from across the country and around the world. On December 12 we participated in the Global Day of Action in Copenhagen and marched with the “Climate Justice is Water Justice” banner signed by people at the Blue Summit.

WIN! Simcoe County council votes "to cease construction and all further development of Site 41"

On Tuesday, September 22 councillors heard the echoes of opposition and protest that have resonated across the country and voted 93-13 to cease construction and all further development for the controversial landfill known as Dump Site 41, which threatened to pollute 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!

Read updates from the sessions on our campaign blog.

View photos and read more on Site 41 »

PHOTO: Maude Barlow and and Meera Karunananthan wave goodbye to the equipment leaving Site 41.

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 »

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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