Water: Barlow's work for water inspires communities to go blue, one at a time

At the Whistler Writers conference last week, Maude Barlow spoke with host Bill Richardson and novelist Omar el Akkad about the world's water. Barlow is one of those leading the charge against the increasingly corporate control of water. Her leadership and work were instrumental in persuading the UN to declare it a basic human right in 2010.

Nestle's 2017 annual bottled sales were $8 billion. It operates in 34 countries and owns 49 brands of bottled water, including Perrier. Vittel provides one example of the results. While Nestle pumps out a million litres a day, the local water table continues to drop. Similar water grabs are taking place in Ethiopia, Pakistan, Tasmania, Calfornia. The list goes on. While "Fiji water" is bottled in imported plastic bottles from China, Fijians lack safe water to drink.

"If placed end to end, the number of single-use plastic bottles now sold each year would extend more than halfway to the sun," Barlow tells us. 91% of these DO NOT get recycled. Nestle now owns the water park in the Brazilian spa town Sao Lourenco. In 2018, due to over-extraction and the resulting bacterial contamination, the nation's health authority banned the sale of water from that plant. In the face of protests by local women whose water supply is being drained away, Nestle still uses its "rights," permitting another company to extract water from the same well.

In another South American country, a private company claimed ownership of falling rain, and tried to forbid people to capture it. Writing at UVIC in 2014, Katie Duke pointed out in a research article that in BC, "the legality of collecting rainwater is uncertain." As US droughts increase, the issue of who "owns" the rain has come under discussion there as well.

Revealing the power of economics on government, Barlow shares the related shocking fact that "a 2016 study of the 100 top economies in the world, 69 were corporations, up from 63 the previous year." According to Global Justice Now, "the ten biggest corporations, including Walmart, Apple and Shell, make more money than most of the countries of the world combined," and "Walmart is bigger than Spain, Australia and the Netherlands."

Yet there is hope. While senior governments fail to act, continuing to support free trade agreements that define water as a saleable commodity, Blue Communities are stepping up. This movement began in 2009 in response to policies of the Harper Conservative government then in power. From Canada, where 27 municipalities joined the movement, the concept spread to cities in Europe and South America, then to institutions including universities, unions and faith-based organizations. Since the 2019 publication of Barlow's book, Victoria, Montreal and Los Angeles are among the cities that have declared themselves Blue.

In line with the 2010 UN resolution that declares water and sanitation fundamental human rights, each "Blue Community promises to protect water as a public trust," and to ensure that decisions about access to water and sanitation are made by "people and their elected officials, not by a for-profit investor." Where clean sources of water are available, Blue Communities also promises to phase out bottled water and to promote municipal tap water as safe and reliable sources.

Working toward universal access to clean water involves many other changes. By taking back control of water from corporations, individuals and communities cannot help but lighten the human footprint on our earthly home. Water is life. Rather than following the current flood of vicious propaganda that encourages shaming, blaming and tribal bunkerism, we need to come together over basic human issues that concern us all. The lesson for the 21st century is simple. As a human race, we are one. It's time to start acting that way. Promoting Blue Communities is one manageable way to begin.