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 The Federal Water Policy is over 20 years old and badly outdated.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

Download the Council of Canadians 2008 General Water Presentation

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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 »

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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) »

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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.

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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 »

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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?'

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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 »

 

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Action

Save Newfoundland's Sandy Pond (July 11, 2008)

Freshwater lakes, not 'tailings impoundment areas' (June 27, 2008)

Tell the Harper Government to take water out of NAFTA now! (June 13, 2008)

Write a letter to the editor in support of water as a human right (March 20, 2008)

Demand that the Harper government vote for the right to water at the UN this week (March 18, 2008)

Protect British Columbia's Sacred Headwaters from becoming a coalbed methane gas field scarred by a maze of wells, pipelines and roads. Join the campaign!

Petition to the Government of Canada: Canada must oppose privatization of water and recognize water as a basic human right!

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Featured fact sheets

Council of Canadians' submission to the Toronto District School Board in advance of a vote on whether to ban bottled water sales in their 560 schools June 2008

Council of Canadians 2008 General Water Presentation

Canada’s water under pressure: Five reasons to oppose bulk water exports October 2007

A National Disgrace: Canada’s shameful position on the right to water October 2007

Global water movement grows in numbers and force October 2007

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Bulk water exports
In April 2007, the Council of Canadians obtained a leaked document produced by a Washington think tank, revealing that business and government leaders in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico are actively discussing bulk water exports. They met in Calgary on April 27, 2007 to discuss the issue in a closed-door meeting as part of a larger discussion on North American integration. Click here to read more about bulk water exports, the leaked document and analysis.

Two reports released by The Program on Water Issues, Munk Centre for International Studies:

• Water Division, Export and Canada-US Relations: A Brief History (PDF format), Frank Quinn, August 2007
• On the Table: Water, Energy and North American Integration (PDF format), Andrew Nikiforuk, September 2007

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Letter to Prime Minister Harper (PDF) on International Women’s Day to call on the Canadian government to endorse the right to water.

Declaration on the Right to Water (PDF)
NEW for teachers! Lesson Plan provided by the Council of Canadians. Includes key questions, talking points, sample municipal water declaration, follow-up activities.

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.

Click here to find out how Deep Integration affects Water.

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.

FEATURES

Letter from Maude Barlow to Ontario Minister of the Environment, John Gerretsen, regarding the Site 41 aquifer in Simcoe County, ON.

Tap dreams: Who controls what we drink? Corporate water comes to (and from) San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Guardian, December 10, 2008

Deripaska mill that polluted Lake Baikal closes, The Guardian (UK), November 12, 2008

Wells water moratorium passes - Food & Water Watch, November 6, 2008

Akron Residents Won’t Let Government Abdicate Responsibility For Sewer System: Voters Reject Stinky Privatization Measure - Food & Water Watch, November 5, 2008

Read the Maude Barlow "Green Thought Leaders" interview by the Gorgeously Green Team

WIN! Residents of Shapleigh overwhelmingly vote to halt all activities of Poland Spring

WIN! Williams Lake backs down from a P3 water plan

VICTORY! Coca-Cola Plant Shut Down in India: Community Welcomes Decision, Company Cites "Unbearable" Financial Losses - India Resource Center, August 14, 2008

Activists in McCloud Celebrate Withdrawal of Nestle Water Bottling Contract - Food & Water Watch, August 6, 2008

Water pact will deplete Great Lakes, expert fears, The Toronto Star, July 22, 2008

The People: 1; Nestle: 1: Activists Save Water From Corporate Control in Wells, Maine as Neighbors in Rangeley Lose Out To Extraction Site - Food & Water Watch, July 18, 2008

Deal would limit taking of water from state - Agreement scores new, concrete protections for Michigan water resources, Detroit Free Press, June 24, 2008

Saint John council rejects public-private partnership for water - Council wants to hear other options, CBC News, June 24, 2008

Bottled Water Bill Moves Forward in California State Senate, Food & Water Watch, June 24, 2008

Water Remunicipalisation Tracker
A new website - www.remunicipalisation.org - highlights the growing trend to return failing privately managed water services to public management.

Quebec moves to protect water - 'Collective resource'; Bill would impose royalties on big users, The Gazette, June 6, 2008.

Recipient of the Canadian Environment Award's Citation of Lifetime Acheivement award, Maude Barlow used portion of her keynote address to highlight the impacts of the petrochemical industry on the environment and health, particularly of First Nations communities, in Canada. Read her full speech here

FELTON PREVAILS! - The community of Felton, California today prevailed in its six-year fight to acquire its water system from California-American Water, a subsidiary of the German multinational corporation RWE, May 30, 2008.

Oscilloscope Pictures Announces First Acquisition: Irena Salina’s ‘FLOW: For Love Of Water’ - A prescient documentary about the looming worldwide water shortage, Oscilloscope Pictures, May 20, 2008.

Maude Barlow discusses "Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water" at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle., KUOW - Seattle, WA, May 8, 2008

Water Voices from Around The World - featuring Maude Barlow - to be honored as the book "Most Likely to Save the Planet."

[08-Apr-08] Organizations correct Liberal Party on right to water

Maude Barlow debates Water as a Human Right, CBC The Current: Part 2, March 24, 2008

Ottawa turns off tap on right to water, Maude Barlow, Toronto Star, March 22, 2008

[18-Mar-08] Activists demand a National Water Policy in over 40 communities across the country on World Water Day

[17-Mar-08] Harper government blocks UN resolution on right to water

Yes, It’s Worth It: Anil Naidoo reflects on a year in the life of the water justice movement, Canadian Perspectives, Spring 2008

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updated December 17, 2008