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Whose Water Is It, Anyway?

Taking Water Protection into Public Hands

By (author) Maude Barlow
Categories: Environmental policy and protocols, The environment, Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning, Conservation of the environment
Publisher: ECW Press
Paperback : 9781770414303, 160 pages, September 2019
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Excerpt

A Blue Community is founded on the understanding that water is a commons, a cultural and natural resource vital to our survival that must be accessible to all members of a community. Commons resources such as air, water and oceans, must be accessible to all members of a community. They are not privately owned but are held collectively to be shared, carefully managed and enjoyed by all. They are a public trust. Recognizing water as a public trust requires governments to protect water for a community’s reasonable use, and for future generations. As part of the commons, community rights and the public interest take priority over private water use. Public and community management of water requires transparent rules of access to water. Many private companies and industries need water for their operations but they must be subject to government oversight based on democratically agreed upon priorities for the use of local water sources.

Table of contents

Introduction

1 - The Fight Against Corporate Control of Water

2 – The Creation of a Global Justice Movement

3 – Blue Communities Take Root in Canada

4 – Blue Communities Give Hope in Europe

5 – Going Blue One Community at a Time

Description

Former senior water advisor to the UN General Assembly Maude Barlow chronicles the history of the Blue Communities movement and explains how regular citizens can become water activists within their local communities.
“Maude Barlow is one of our planet’s greatest water defenders. ” —Naomi Klein, bestselling author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine

Reviews

“Water inflates cells of all life forms, enables biological metabolism, transports materials throughout our bodies and around the world and provides an aqueous environment for our first nine months of life.  Water is not a ‘resource’ or ‘economic opportunity’ but a sacred gift from Nature that is our responsibility to protect and use sparingly so that all life on Earth may flourish.  This book is a blueprint for communities around the world to take back that responsibility and maintain water as a human right. ”  — David Suzuki

“If water shortages and global unrest are on your mind — and they should be — read this book. ” — Caryn Mandelbaum, Water Program Director, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation

“Whose Water Is It, Anyway? is in fact a bouncy book of hope … Amid all the frustrations and disappointments of the global environmental crisis, Barlow seems to have hit upon a really good idea … What Barlow is teaching us with this punchy little book is that, yes, there can be hope. ” — the Globe and Mail

“This is a must-read. ” — Jane Fonda

“In Whose Water Is It, Anyway?: Taking Water Protection into Public Hands, Barlow passionately describes the history of how water, on a global scale, has been systematically transformed from a public good to an economic commodity — right under our noses … Fortunately, Barlow provides a blueprint for the work and pathway for hope. ” — Winnipeg Free Press