The Right to Water

Water is essential to life - no one should be able to control it or expropriate it for profit. In the current global water crisis, billions of people still lack access to basic water and sanitation services. Everyday, thousands of people die from preventable diseases contracted because they do not have access to clean water.

The majority of those dying are children under the age of five.

The right to water has been recognized internationally through the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. But in 2002, the Canadian government was the only one to vote against accepting water as a human right at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Moreover, the Walkerton Inquiry found that the right to water does not exist in Canadian legislation. As such, our government’s position, both internationally and domestically, continues to deny the fundamental human right to water.

Why would our government take a stance that is so out of line with Canadian values?

The world’s water companies would like to see water regarded as a human need, enabling them to control and sell water to the highest bidder for profit. Because Canada manages the largest freshwater resources in the world, companies are lining up to pump, bottle and privatize our water for their profit. Despite the increasing threat to our water, the Canadian government has not updated its national water policy in over 15 years. Instead, governments over this period of time have continued to support free trade agreements that only further threaten our ability to safeguard our water for people and nature.

Act now!

The Council of Canadians is launching a national campaign to ensure water is a human right and to encourage Canadians to act locally to protect our waters. We must ensure that water remains a human right that is public, protected, and priceless.

What you can do:

• E-mail the Prime Minister: Tell Prime Minister Harper to reverse his government’s position on water as a human right, and to protect Canada's water by developing a new national water policy and keeping water out of trade deals.
• Keep Informed: Sign up for updates on The Council of Canadians’ National Water Campaign.
• Act for Canada’s Waters: Join your local Council of Canadians chapter and get involved in protecting water in your community.
  For more information on our local chapters, please click here.

Publications:

• A National Disgrace: Canada’s shameful position on the right to water
• Global water movement grows in numbers and force
• A National Disgrace: Canada’s shameful position on the right to water needs to change
  Canadian Perspectives Spring 2007
• Canada and the right to water - Five things you should know about Canada's position on the right to water
• Taking back the World Water Forum
• Passage to India
• Kyoto Showdown: Civil Society at the Third World Water Forum
• Activists Take Centre Stage at Water Forum

For more information on the issue of water as a human right please see:

• Briefing Notes by Maude Barlow that explore why a UN Convention on the Right to Water is an idea whose time has come (November 2006)
• Water is a Human Right
• Blue Planet Project
• Development and Peace
• Association pour un Contrat Mondiale de l'Eau