Saving
Our Blue Future: The Human Race Needs a New Water Ethic
Photo credit: Flickr / cc / Tim Cronin / Center for International
Forestry Research (CIFOR).
Have you heard? The
world is running out of accessible clean water.
Humanity is polluting,
mismanaging, and displacing our finite freshwater sources at an alarming rate. Since
1990, half the rivers in China have disappeared. The Ogallala Aquifer that supplies the U.S.
breadbasket will be gone “in our lifetime,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture
says.
By 2030, global demand for
water will outstrip supply by 40 percent, a surefire recipe for great suffering. Five
hundred scientists recently told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that our
collective abuse of water has caused the planet to enter “a new geologic age”
and that the majority of the planet’s population lives within 31 miles of an
endangered water source.
Just as water can be a
source of disputes, conflict, and violence, water can bring people, communities,
and nations together in the shared search for solutions.
Yet in
election after election the world over, no one’s paying attention to this
urgent issue.
That’s
why I’m calling for a new water ethic that places water and its protection at
the heart of all policy and practice. This may strike you as far-fetched, but
we must do it now. The future of the planet and the human race both depend on
it.
And
taking our water crisis seriously will change everything.
What
would farm policy look like if we understood that the global food system is
depleting local watersheds through the export of a torrent of “virtual water”?
Vast quantities of water are embedded in apples, corn, and other crops.
How
would trade policy change if we understood that global trade deals give global
firms the right to claim “ownership” of the water they use in other countries?
Would
our energy policies change if we realized that water-guzzling biofuels may be
more environmentally dangerous than the fossil fuels they’re supposed to
replace?
This
new water ethic should honor four principles.
First,
water is a human right and must be more equitably shared. The United Nations
has recognized that drinking water and sanitation are fundamental rights and
that governments have obligations not only to supply these services to their
people but also to prevent harm to source water. This provides an important
tool to local communities as they confront dangerous mines, dams, and
fossil-fuel extraction operations around the world.
Second,
water is a common heritage of humanity and of future generations and must be
protected as a public trust in law and practice. Water must never be bought,
hoarded, sold, or traded as a commodity on the open market and governments must
maintain the water commons for the public good, not private gain. While private
businesses have a role in helping find solutions to our water crisis, they
shouldn’t be allowed to determine access to this basic public service. The
public good trumps the corporate drive to make profits when it comes to water.
Third,
water has rights too, outside its usefulness to humans. Water belongs to the
Earth and other species. Our belief in “unlimited growth” and our treatment of
water as a tool for industrial development have put the earth’s watersheds in
jeopardy. Water isn’t merely a resource for our convenience, pleasure, and
profit. It’s the essential element in a living ecosystem. We need to adapt our
laws and practices to ensure the protection of water and the restoration of
watersheds — a crucial antidote to global warming.
Finally,
I deeply believe that water can teach us how to live together if only we will
let it. There is enormous potential for water conflict in a world of rising
demand and diminishing supply. But just as water can be a source of disputes,
conflict, and violence, water can bring people, communities, and nations
together in the shared search for solutions.
Preserving
water supplies will require more collaborative and sustainable ways of growing
food, producing energy, and trading across borders. It will demand robust
democratic governance.
It is my deepest hope that
water can become nature’s gift to humanity and teach us how to tread more
lightly on the earth — in peace and respect with one another.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share
Alike 3.0 License.
Published
on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 by OtherWords
Maude Barlow is the national
chairperson of the Council of Canadians, chairperson of Food and Water Watch in the U.S., and co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, which is instrumental in the
international community in working for the right to water for all people.
