Water of vital importance this election
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By Gwyn Frayne
We are gearing up for a federal election. one subject which I believe needs some thought before we vote is how the differing political parties will deal with policies concerning water.
Locally, we may think we have an abundance of water, but we need to look at the implications of what privatization might do to us. We know that California wants our water for their golf courses and lawns. We know that huge water companies are trying to privatize water all over the world. We need to question how water is used here and in the world. For example, we may forget that Iraq not only has oil, which companies and countries want, it has much of the mid-East's water.
The World Water Assessment Program (WWAP), which combines the efforts of 23 United Nations agencies and is based in UNESCO, the Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization of the U.N., states that 25,000 people die daily from hunger. That hunger is tied to the lack of water since much of the world needs irrigation before crops can be grown.
Water is, as we know, the most basic and critical component of all aspects of human life. But the goal of the U.N. to halve the proportion of hungry people by 2015 may be unattainable. By 2020, we are also told, the average water supply per person worldwide is expected to be a third smaller than now. Yes, we all do need to learn to conserve and use less.
When considering this water crisis, we need to look at who is promoting the privatization of water. The big transnational water companies, of course, want to make profit from water. It appears that the “new” Conservative party would allow the corporations to do that. What about the Liberals? Well, the fact that the federal government has been trying to fast-forward all the international trade deals, which would allow the privatization of everything, including health care, education, culture, etc. means that water would be sold to the highest bidder, too.
I wonder how many people in our province watched the Fifth Estate's recent CBC program on water. It emphasized the disaster of privatizing water, and showed how places like Atlanta, Georgia were returning to public water after their privatization failed.
If we really want to look after our country, we must also look after the world, since we are inextricably interconnected.
The Council of Canadians national Chairperson, Maude Barlow, sums it up this way: “The water wars have already begun. The strongest and the richest must not be allowed to control the world's water. Water is not a commodity, it is a human right.”
In Canada we need to show some leadership in the world and choose elected members of parliament who will protect our water and our future.
Gwyn Frayne, Chair, Comox Valley Chapter – Council of Canadians
@ April 26, 2004