Clean water is a diminishing resource around the world that many say should be viewed as a basic human right.

According to one report (Canadian Medical Association Journal, May 2008), there were 1,700 boil-water advisories in effect in communities and neighbourhoods across Canada.

Water Contamination Widespread
The report says every province and territory, except Prince Edward Island, Yukon, and Nunavut had advisories in place warning people that tap or well water is not safe to drink because of contamination. In some cases, it was considered risky even to bathe in the water. All this despite stricter laws and monitoring efforts.

The president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, Gord Steeves, estimates it would cost about $31 billion to upgrade water infrastructure across the country. And, he says that although municipalities are getting some help from the federal and provincial governments, they still are struggling to pay most of the costs themselves.

Threat to Human Security
Activist Maude Barlow says the water crisis is perhaps the most urgent ecological and human threat of our time. In October 2008, Ms. Barlow, head of the Council of Canadians, was named senior adviser on water issues to the United Nations.

She has long campaigned against the privatization of water systems. She says part of her UN job will be to try to set up a new convention on water rights that would “establish that water is a right and that nobody in the world should be denied water because they can’t pay for it, and right now if you can’t pay for it you die in many, many countries.”

Speaking to the United Nations General Assembly in April 2009, Ms. Barlow said “More children die each year of water-borne disease than war, HIV/AIDS, and traffic accidents combined.

“In their World Water Development Report, 26 agencies of the United Nations confirmed what those of us working in the field already knew: that the global water crisis is getting worse by the day and threatening millions more people every year.”

Water a Public Responsibility
She believes firmly that clean water must be delivered as a public service, not a profitable commodity. And, she sees access to clean, affordable water as a fundamental human right.

“Most Western law has viewed natural resources as the property of humans. We need new laws to regulate human behaviour in order to protect the integrity of the Earth and all species on it from our wanton exploitation. As Martin Luther King said, the law may not change the heart but it will restrain the heartless.”

According to a new United Nations report (March 2009), World Water Development Report, nearly half of the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030.

Image credit
Kensho

“Investigative Report: 1766 Boil-water Advisories now in Place across Canada.” Canadian Medical Association Journal, April 7, 2008.


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