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Water cures

On April 1, California Governor Jerry Brown ordered mandatory water restrictions in his drought-stricken state for the first time in history. The news was carried around the world. “Climate change” was named as the culprit. 

While there is no doubt that greenhouse-gas-induced climate change has dramatically affected the snowfall in the Sierras, reducing the amount of runoff the state depends on for water renewal, there is another story here that has to be told. 

For decades, massive engineering projects have constructed pipelines, canals and aqueducts to supply water to a relatively small number of powerful farmers in the Central Valley. 

Eighty per cent of all water in California goes to agriculture, much of it to grow water-intensive crops for export. Alfalfa hay alone, grown largely for export to Japan, uses 15 per cent of the state’s water. California produces 80 per cent of the world’s almonds, and their production uses another 10 per cent of state water supply.  

Absent renewable water sources, farmers have taken to mercilessly mining groundwater to produce their lucrative crops. If the rains don’t come soon – and there is no sign that they will – groundwater will be depleted in many parts of the state. 

But the new government restrictions apply only to urban centres and not to the big agricultural producers who hold powerful political sway in the state. 

For years, there’s been a free-for-all as big industrial farms turned a resource that belonged to the people into a commodity owned and controlled by private interests. 

Having secured “water rights,” some of these corporate agribusinesses also hoard, buy and sell their water. 

The restrictions also do not apply to the state’s many fracking and bottled water operations that are harming and depleting local supplies. In 2014 alone, California oil producers used about 280 million litres of water for fracking.  

The problem in California, as in so many parts of the world, is that we see water as a resource for our convenience and profit and not as the essential element of an ecosystem that gives us life. As well, water is more and more seen as a form of private property, and powerful forces increasingly resist any attempt by governments to limit their abuse. 

These same kinds of interests are operating in Canada, too. In their name, the Harper government has gutted every single law that once protected our water. Canadians must not be fooled. 

We were raised with the “myth of abundance,” believing that we can never run out. Wrong. 

The UN now says we have 15 years to avert a full-blown water crisis and that by 2030 demand for water in our world will outstrip supply by 40 per cent. 

Five hundred renowned scientists brought together by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that our collective abuse of water has caused the planet to enter a “new geologic age” – a “planetary transformation” akin to the retreat of the glaciers more than 11,000 years ago. Already, they say, a majority of the world’s population lives within a 30-mile radius of water sources that are badly impaired or running out. And more children die of water-borne disease that all forms of violence put together – including war. 

So how are world leaders and global institutions dealing with this threat? Very badly and with no plan. 

When water is discussed at world gatherings, it is as a by-product of climate change. There is little real understanding that when we remove water from water-retentive landscapes, we dramatically and negatively affect the climate. 

Cutting down the Amazon forest, for example, has led to a perilous drop in rain. For the first time in living history, once water-rich São Paulo, Brazil, is experiencing severe drought. 

The solutions to a water-secure world must be based on some fundamental principles. Water plunder must stop. Governments have to stand up to the industries, powerful private interests and bad practices destroying supplies all over the world. 

Governments everywhere must declare water a public trust to be fiercely guarded and managed for the public good. Governments must place priorities on access to limited supplies, especially groundwater, and ban private industry from ownership and control of this important resource. Any industry found polluting water must be denied access. 

Water is the common heritage of humanity and of future generations. It must never be bought, hoarded, sold or traded on the open market. Water services must be a public service delivered on a not-for-profit basis. 

Water is also a human right. In our world, private interests increasingly control water. To add insult, they often pay next to nothing for their abuse. 

Lack of access to clean water and sanitation is the greatest human rights issue in the global South. 

But lack of access to water is no longer confined to poor countries. In the name of austerity, thousands have had their water services cut off in Europe, and many thousands suffer from lack of water in places closer to home like Detroit because they cannot afford the very high prices.  

We must learn a new reverence for water and understand that nature put water where it belongs. We destroy watersheds at our peril. 

We need a global plan of action that includes:

• Watershed protection, conservation and restoration 

• National and community programs to replenish water-retentive landscapes 

• Watershed sharing and governance 

• Models of food and energy production that do not harm water 

• Strong laws to prevent eutro-phication [enrichment of an ecosystem with chemical nutrients] 

• Consideration of the impact on water of trade agreements 

• Strong local, national and international commitment to put water protection at the heart of all laws and policies.

Will the people of California take these measures to protect their water from entrenched and powerful interests standing in the way of good policy? 

California is the canary in the coal mine. There is no place on earth safe from water abuse in a world running out. 

Maude Barlow is the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians and author of Blue Future: Protecting Water for People And the Planet Forever. 

news@nowtoronto.com | @nowtoronto

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