OTTAWA - March 8 - This International Women's Day a new report is drawing attention to the impacts of water privatization on women. The report, Women & Water in Canada: The Significance of Privatization and Commercialization Trends for Women's Health, is being submitted today to the UN's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for the Independent Expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation.

Women & Water in Canada highlights a range of negative impacts of water privatization on women, including price increases, higher disconnection rates, declining water quality and loss of oversight. The report was prepared for the National Network on Environments and Women's Health with the involvement of:  the Council of Canadians, Women and Health Care Reform, and the Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence.

"Access to clean, safe drinking water is a central determinant of health in Canada, as it is all over the world. As the primary caretakers of health, women are doubly affected by decisions about water governance," says Anne Rochon Ford, Co-Director, National Network on Environments and Women's Health. "In most parts of the world, women are the majority of water providers for their families and are responsible for obtaining safe drinking water for their families. They therefore suffer more when ‘a price is put on water'."

The Council of Canadians hopes the report will inform the Canadian government's actions when it comes to promoting public water services at home and abroad.

"Stephen Harper has claimed that his G8 "priority" is women and maternal health, yet his government continues to undermine international efforts to recognize water as a human right," says Meera Karunananthan, national water campaigner with the Council of Canadians. "If the Harper government is genuinely interested in protecting women and maternal health it will stop blocking the right to water at the UN, stop promoting privatization, and take immediate steps to implement a national water policy."

Issues examined in the report include: the motivations behind the push towards privatization and the commercialization of water; the debates over whether water should be privatized, or whether it should be held in common as an essential human resource that no corporation can or should own; the different types of water management models; examples of water privatization initiatives globally and their consequences; specific experiences of and threats of privatization within Canada; and the specific gendered health risks associated with water privatization, especially those affecting Aboriginal women.

The full Women & Water in Canada report is available online at: www.canadians.org and www.womenandwater.ca.