The auditorium at Trinity College’s Buttery was filled to the brim last Friday, welcoming author and water access activist Maude Barlow to a roundtable on global water issues. Attendees were mostly middle-aged, though the event was free to students, as participants eagerly lined up for the Q & A session.
Barlow, a founder of the Council of Canadians and recent UN senior advisor on water, examined water access as a social and political issue. She argued that the status of water as a tradable good in North America and elsewhere limits access for the poor and damages the environment.
When larger settlements pollute their own supply, said Barlow, they often seize water from a smaller, less powerful community. One example is Mexico City piping water from nearby indigenous communities. Closer to home, Barlow cited cases where First Nations communities’ water supply became polluted if they lived downstream from the Tar Sands, referred to as “Canada’s Mordor.”
Barlow proposed that water be made a public trust. She cited a recent law in Vermont that limited the amount of water one could pump for commercial gain, preserving the resource for times of shortage.
“If corporations decide on water, only the wealthy will be able to afford it,” she said. Barlow emphasized the ecological importance of healthy watersheds, saying, “Nature has rights beyond the public trust.”
Joining Barlow were colleagues Dr. Aharon Zohar, a lecturer at Haifa and Hebrew Universities, and professor Jennifer McKay of the University of South Australia.
Zohar spoke about the complex water issues of the Middle East, including population growth outstripping water supply and unequal access between countries and regions. According to Zohar, water even plays a role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, admitting, “ When both sides reach a peace agreement, water will be an issue.”
McKay backed up Barlow’s concerns about commercial control of water, citing examples from Australia. “I think you’ve got to be very careful with market machinations.”
The roundtable addressed grave concerns but made room for creative solutions. Barlow was optimistic about Obama’s win in the United States, emphasized as an opportunity to build new alliances for water rights. “We have [an] economic and human crisis of global proportions,” she said. “Sometimes our differences are not so very great.”
