We all need water that is for sure ! I don't think there is going to be enough water anyway, and most of it is polluted. Selling bottled water is turning out to be an enviromental disaster, but just like oil the profiteers do not care about our planet, only their pocket books.Taking water away from it's location completely is creating deserts all over the planet and the predictions from some scientists is that we will not have water at the rate we are going. Sooner rather than later.. I hope that the goverments start seeing the urgency, and do something soon, but between polution and selling it things look bad. As far as people having clean water and sanatation they have not had water like they should ever. That is one of the main reasons many countries are poverty stricken. Northern America doesn't even want to give Southern America water and they are the same Country ! This water thing is just another way to prove we are all heartless animals !

well, i think this ill-informed, bully-mentality, imperialistic, corporately sponsored capitalistic experiment peaked in the late fifties. our entire culture, business community and governments have become corrupted. that's what happens when a nation believes it consume its way to wealth on the shoulders of somebody else's sweatshop and uses intimidation to take what it wants. instilling fear is not garnering respect! for as long as i can remember Environmental Issues have topped my list, but as i'm sure most here know, the majority prefer to follow the money and presume the Environment and BP will take car of it if we just buy a lot of neat stuff. don't have too much faith in bp, but Mother Nature is reacting right now!

failure to manage our resources, failure to self-govern populations, losses of drinking water, arable land, woodland along with disappearing rain forests all point to rough weather ahead.

entropy has taken over and all we can do is be aware and "watch out for falling debris." i really think we cannot nor should not "return to normalcy."

just smile! it's brutal but a necessary correction.

Let them start calling water a human right and pretty soon they'll be saying people have a right to breathe...to eat..to shelter..to labor gainfully..to have a period of rest..to medical care....

This must be stopped now or we'll be sliding down a slippery slope with no end in sight.

The Himalayan glaciers that are a major source of water for India are diminishing due to global warming. With an expanding economy and population, water will be very a critical resource for India in the near future.

Apart from mineral and energy resources and oil and gas pipeline routes, Afghanistan also has the potential to supply water to Pakistan and India.

If the illegal invasion and occupation of Afghanistan creates a corporate owned economy as in the new Iraq, water will become a commodity sold to the needy and converted into corporate profit.

Peak Water is coming just around the corner. India and China are in trouble. The huge Ogallala aquifer beneath the Great Plains in the US is depleting fast. Las Vegas, Phoenix and the southwest will be in serious trouble in the near future.

Will wars over oil be followed by wars over water? A big part of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is over water. Everybody, including Israel want to tap into the Tigris-Euphrates, and Iraq is already suffering because of the water being extracted upriver. The future does not look good.

The United States targetted Iraqi sources of water in the first Iraq war with internal memoes openly describing how it would lead to 10's of thousands of deaths, primarily amongst children.

This was DELIBERATE.

Part of the opposition to such could well be the desire of the first world nations to bomb abd disrupt water supplies in the third world in order to force the latter countries to comply with demands to "Open the Markets" and or "allow multinationals to take control of resources".

They dont want it as a human right because they want to use water as a weapon.

Human's have made 'access to water' a 'Right'....'MIGHT is 'right' '. Yes.

Repeatedly I have asked, in other forums and for some years now : "What is the most precious liquid on Earth?". This question has brought forth, over and over again : OIL!

I have told of the Eurphrates and the Tigris.. how it will come about that the people who have depended for their very lives on water from either of these - and other rivers - can be starved to death.. no water, no food. Whole peoples wiped out, in a most convenient manner.

It was like talking to lead bricks. OIL! There were voices raised : 'who cares? those people who depend on those rivers hate America anyway.'
.............................................................
Hummingbird:

'instilling fear is not garnering respect!'

Indeed, it is instilling hatred.

~

Swimming pools and golf courses in the desert for the elite. Lake Powell evaporates the amount of water LA uses. Smart.

Only in a corporate run, profit minded world would anyone consider water and sanitation anything less than a human right. Worse is talk of privatization and selling of water. They actually said in the article that they just want to make sure that everyone has a right to affordable water. That still means someone is turning a buck off someone elses misery. Check out the PBS special "Blue Gold: World Water Wars". It is on Netflix if you have it. Otherwise a lot of their programming is available from their site.

It might sound nit-picking, but I wonder if everyone has a "right" to water. The word "right" usually refers to something everyone should be able to do: the right to free speech, the right to assemble peaceably, etc. Or the word might apply to a group of people that are to be treated fairly: Women's Rights. This "right to water" just doesn't fit.

I would frame the issue more broadly: All people are entitled to the necessities of life: clean air, clean water, sanitation, sufficient energy to accomplish basic needs, and shelter. The word "entitled" seems more appropriate. Rights can be given or taken away; an entitlement is what belongs to you without the sanction of the powers that be. Such a principle (in law) could be invoked whenever a corporation or person fouls the water others need to drink, when the air is polluted, thereby causing disease, when the ground is contaminated by chemical spills. It could be helpful when confronting the rich and powerful who are spoiling the lands and waters of the poor to gain profit for themselves.

This to me is another example of privatization vs. the people's common areas (air, food, shelter, etc). If the capitalists get away with privatizing water, how far away is privatizing air?

First, there are lots of NGOs that do water projects around the world. I am sort of in a rush or I would post some of the more reputable ones. Find one that dills or digs wells and donate. Make sure to research them and find ones that build old fastioned technology wells with 'analog' pumps. Lots of NGOs and IGOs dill wells and then power them with electric pumps that require fuel, for generators, panels for solar, hook up to a power grid. (nothing wrong with solar but fixing it in sub-Saharan Africa is a show stopper) Windmills, hand pumps, things that some one in the third world can fix is what is really needed.

Second, "Canada is the worst. But Australia, the United States and Great Britain are also holding up the process," she said.", is a garbage statement, my unit has put in more wills using US taxpayer dollars than I can name or number. mostly paid for by USAID.

Fresh, safe water is a product that may be manufactured from seawater, from polluted water, from agricultural waste or from brackish water. In our well-engineered society, the cost of manufacturing any simple product will continue to drop. Information wants to be free, so poor people in poor countries will get this information eventually.

That said, the corrupt and the rich are stealing water in 100 ways these days.

In California, the rich farmland owners are sitting around waiting for a terrible earthquake that will hand them a water monopoly. Smart cookies, but if justice were to prevail the courts should jail these people. As it is, water is high priced for growing California cities and is artificially low priced for certain wasteful farmers.

In Pakistan some Pakistani villagers are claiming that the Indians are stealing their river's water. A few miles upstream, corrupt Pakistanis with connections are actually stealing all of the river's water.

Turkey is trying to keep water that originates in Turkey from reaching Iraq.

In Colorado, homeowners may not legally catch and use the rain that falls on their house roof on their property. That water is sold to someone downstream.

Water is a strange product. People make agreements over water than hasn't yet fallen, and in some years the water may never fall from the sky. Water can be used up by evaporation, so that it's gone. It's under our soil and it's falling out of the sky, but our water isn't really ours. A huge communal reservoir of water may exist under thousands of landowners' land, and one or two people may pump the reservoir dry.

"If the draft resolution is eventually adopted by the 192- member U.N. General Assembly, 'it would be one of the most important things the United Nations has done since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,' she said."

And we've all seen what has happened to that declaration, haven't we.

The right to water is the right of all living beings and not the Frankenstein Corporations.

"water for profit"

eau dear!

I think there's more than meets the eye in this particular story. Maude Barlow, as the article says, is "a global water advocate and a founder of the Canada-based Blue Planet Project". She is highly respected among activists around the world. Her credentials are not in question.

However, read again what "a diplomatic source" had to say "speaking off-the-record" (why the hell anyone would want to speak off-the-record on this matter?):

>>>... the argument being made is there is already an ongoing process in Geneva that is meant to work on this, and that the General Assembly "is jumping the gun"

What ongoing process? Why is that "process" not named explicitly?

And the General Assembly "is jumping the gun"? WTF? On most matters, the UN General Assembly is far more democratic and reasonable, than any elite club such as the Security Council, although the GA often lacks the muscle to enforce things.

There is some "process" going on, all right (although I'm not sure if it's based out of Geneva). For example, I came across this dubious-sounding entity called the "2030 Water Resources Group" that has listed as its members various corporations such as Coca Cola, Nestlé, Barilla Group (Italian food co.), etc.

According to Powerbase (that calls itself "your guide to spin, networks of power, lobbying, Public Relations and the communications activities of governments and other interests"),
"The 2030 Water Resources Group was formed in 2008. Its a collaboration of industrial users of water, the World Bank (mainly through its subdivision, the International Financial Corporation) and the Global Management Consultancy firm McKinsey and Company. With no 'independent' address and with all enquiries relating to the 2030 Water Resources Group directed to the e-mail address 2030WaterResourcesGroup@mckinsey.com one can deduce McKinsey and Company has been charged with the facilitation of this group, its outputs and the dissemination of these outputs."

This group seems to be behind efforts in countries such as India in getting new legislation passed that would allow greater private control of water resources. They have put out a report called "Charting Our Water Future - Economic frameworks to inform decision-making" that seems to be getting some traction on the internet. A cursory look at the report reads somewhat suspicious, primarily because of the actors involved. It's true that the bottom-line of many of these companies depend on assured supply of phenomenal amounts of water at prices that are next to nothing.

Now read what the "diplomatic source" had to say, again:
>>>""Overall, water and sanitation are such critical issues that we must work towards consensus on this resolution. Anything less than consensus would undermine the very importance we attach to them," he warned."

So, what's stopping the consensus? And who?

Maude Barlow's characterization of the Canadian officials claim that "such a convention might force Canada to share its water with the United States" - as a "complete red herring" is spot on. NAFTA forces Canada to sell a portion of their oil production to the US, and no one seems to be complaining about it. If anything, they can't wait to sell more.

There's more to the story. There is a reason that the elite do not want to see the UN General Assembly and the uppity activists from gaining traction. I think they see a threat to private control of water resources if this thing is allowed to proceed without elite control.

Rich countries have been exploiting poorer countries since the 16th century when Europeans began their campaigns under-developing Africa and the rest of the nations along the 30° N latitude. Supposedly, globalization is going to make us all equal. A good joke on everyone but the rich.

What a shameful reflection on humanity

What about a human right to tell other humans to stop breeding.

There are more of us than the planet can sustain, and to keep producing more mouths, and then expecting food, water and energy to just turn up as of right - and legislating for it - is pure insanity.

It is clear that some places on Earth are going to be increasingly desperate for water - people living near the Himalayan rivers which supply India, Pakistan, southeast Asia and China with water being perhaps the best example.

And with global warming seemingly on an irreversible course to melt the Himalayan glaciers, that is a major problem of water equity for ethically minded humans to contemplate and act upon.

Certainly, privatization of water and use for such frivolous consumer items as soda pop and bottled water need to stop now....maybe even beer needs to go to (can hear the howls now)...as an aside...I wonder how much the legalization of alcohol relates to keeping the lower classes sedated and asleep?...while mind expanding drugs like marijuana are illegal?) But back to topic...

Massive conservation efforts and small scale farming surely needs to be emphasized.

And health care and social welfare needs to be improved as reductions in mortality/morbidity removes some of the incentive for large families.

In theory, I am for the idea of water sharing to make up for what can't be supplied through conservation efforts, etc. But what about animal rights/ecosystem rights?

I actually have no idea what progressives are proposing when it comes to sharing water around the globe. Does that mean damming more wild rivers in pristine untouched wilderness (in British Columbia, Canada for example?).

My sense is that first, laws need to change to end corporate rape and theft from the earth and all peoples. Resources need to be distributed equitably and wisely with an eye towards environmental stewardship (the ultimate source of all the resources).

The capitalists' agenda is very simple: To impose property rights on absolutely everything. It could be the most foolish of all positions to suppose that the capitalists are thoughtfully selective in the items they target for ownership/control. This is a very familiar position among USan liberals.

'Ulpian July 17th, 2010 2:04 pm
What about a human right to tell other humans to stop breeding.

There are more of us than the planet can sustain, and to keep producing more mouths, and then expecting food, water and energy to just turn up as of right - and legislating for it - is pure insanity."

As I have 'suggested', many times here and elsewhere - the world elite (NOT any one country, note).. but members of a WORLD Government, will attend to this problem.

It has to be said, this is rational if the human species is to continue... Earth's resources are not infinite.. The pollution necessary to keep ever more breathing things alive (human animals/other animals/plants) will ruin Earth's air, water and soil for us all... the Lifeboat Theory.

The means?

We over produce, over eat, then flush our gigantic turds down the toilet with more water than developing countries use for drinking and washing the sweat from their brow.

Water Wars. They are coming. Those who control the water, control life.

A right to water? what's next- we don't hafta pay for the air we breathe anymore?