SECTIONS

Conclusion

This paper, and the process of which it is a part, is an attempt to promote the Commons narrative in our collective work on water. A Commons approach and analysis could improve the quality of our research, communication, campaigning and collaboration as well as promote alliance building with other Commons movements. A Commons approach would serve as an “umbrella discourse,” revealing the shared strategic interests of diverse groups that are now operating in narrow issue silos. To adopt and use the language of the Commons would give activists and writers a way of asserting common cause with allies in adjacent fields of action. Just as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring launched an environmental movement that changed the world, so too does the notion of the Commons have the capacity to move us forward in the next phase of our human journey. The world is crying out for new vision and hope. This lens of the Commons, with its ancient beginnings and its infinite possibilities, could provide that vision and hope, as well as a way forward in these precarious times.

Sources and Further Reading

This paper owes a great deal to the Commons “pioneers” who have forged a movement to reclaim the notion of the Commons and give it voice in our modern world. Most helpful have been Vandana Shiva’s writings, particularly Monocultures of the Mind, 1993, and The Seed Keepers, 1995; Jonathan Rowe’s articles and reports for a variety of journals, including Yes Magazine and Utne Reader, where Fanfare for the Commons first appeared; David Bollier’s many books, especially Silent Theft, The Private Plunder of our Common Wealth, 2002; Richard Bocking’s 2003 paper Reclaiming the Commons for the First Unitarian Church of Victoria; and Peter Barne’s Capitalism 3.0: A Guide to Reclaiming the Commons, 2006. Harriet Barlow shepherded the production of the influential 2003/2004 report The State of the Commons for the Friends of the Commons. I used their collective work as a backdrop against which to apply my knowledge of the global water crisis to an analysis of the Commons.

For a greater examination of the global water crisis, there are many sources, including my 2007 book Blue Covenant, The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water. Several other books are helpful in describing the crisis, including: The Water Atlas, a book of facts and maps about water by Robin Clarke and Jannet King (2004); Deep Water, on the global struggle against large dams by Jacques Leslie (2005); Liquid Assets on the need to protect freshwater ecosystems by Sandra Postel (2005); and When the Rivers Run Dry on the ecological water crisis, by Fred Pearce (2006). The United Nations monitors the global water crisis in a number of its agencies. Through its World Water Assessment Programme, which coordinates the work of 24 agencies, every three years the UN publishes a groundbreaking assessment of the world’s water. Its 2006 World Water Development Report is called Water, A Shared Responsibility. As well, every year, the United Nations publishes a Human Development Report. Its 2006 report was devoted (for the first time) to the world water crisis. Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis, cites a form of “water apartheid” that divides those with access to too much clean water and those with little or no access at all.

Every two years, the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, led by the noted water expert Peter Gleick, publishes a comprehensive study called The World’s Water: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources, with massive data on the most significant trends in water and water management. The Pacific Institute maintains a website devoted to continuous publication of new information and studies on all aspects of the world water crisis. Sandra Postel’s Global Water Policy Project is dedicated to the preservation of the world’s’ water resources and puts out a steady stream of excellent research and documentation, especially on the desertification of the planet. The World Watch Institute, whose website declares that “Water scarcity may be the most underappreciated global environmental challenge of our time,” has an extensive water program and turns out huge volumes of research on the state of the world’s water.

Several books helped to chronicle the history of the campaign to enforce a private model of water delivery and its failure. These include Water Wars by Vandana Shiva (2001); Whose Water is it?, a 2003 collection edited by Bernadette McDonald and Douglas Jehl for the National Geographic; The Water Barons by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (2003); and The Water Business by Ann-Christin Holland (2005). Others are good sources on the fight back around the world to reclaim the water Commons. They include Aqua Para Todos, 2003, by Dieter Wartchow, formerly head of Corsan, the public water company of Porto Alegre Brazil; Cochabamaba! Water War in Bolivia, 2004, by Oscar Olivera; Reclaiming Public Water by Corporate Europe Observatory and the Transnational Institute (2005); and Thirst, Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water, 2007, by Alan Snitow, Deborah Kaufman and Michael Fox. Also very helpful on the Bolivia situation is Jim Shultz’s Democracy Center website. His April 2005 report, Deadly Consequences, the International Monetary Fund and Bolivia’s “Black February,” gives historic background of the eventual win in that country.

Other excellent sources for information on the fight to protect the world’s water commons include, Public Services International and Public Services International Research Unit in Geneva, who have done groundbreaking research on alternatives to private water delivery; Blue Planet Project in Canada; the World Development Movement in Great Britain; FIVAS in Norway; Food and Water Watch in Washington, which has done extensive research on the funding agencies around he world; Alliance Sud in Switzerland; Corporate Europe Observatory in Paris; IBON in the Philippines; RED Vida, a Latin American network of water allies; COMDA in Mexico; Ecofundo in Colombia; Friends of the Earth Uruguay; and the African Water Network, representing activists from 40 African countries.

Ashfaq Khalfan of the Right to Water Program at the UN Centre for Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) November 6, 2008e wrote Legal Resources for the Right to Water: International and National Standards. John Scanlon, Angela Cassar and Noemi Nemes of the World Conservation Union wrote Water as a Human Right? on the legal ramifications of a UN instrument. Henri Smets of the European Council on Environmental Law and the French Academy of Water compiled a catalogue of all current domestic legislation in his 2006 report, The Right to Water in National Legislatures. Rodrigo Gutierrez Rivas of the Legal Resource Institute at the University of Mexico wrote a March 2007 paper called Privatization and the Right to Water: A View From the South.

Michal Kravcik has written extensively on his concerns about the hydrologic cycle and how to protect it. He lays out a plan in Blue Alternative, Water for the Third Millennium, 2002. Cormac Cullinan wrote the powerful 2003 book, Wild Law: A Manifesto for Earth Justice.

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