Our most recent post focused on the growing issue of fresh water. Tim's key message throughout the piece was that "water is life". Indeed, we as human beings are intrinsically tied to water in a way that is unlike any other bond we share with other substances on Earth. We drink it to survive; it helps grow the food we need to eat; it gives us aesthetic and recreational pleasure; it helps powers much of our economy; it is worshipped by nearly every religious, spiritual and cultural group in the world; etcetera.
But despite this connection, not everyone in the world has access to sufficient levels of clean water. We've all seen or heard the pictures and stories of regions in the world where disease, thirst and death run rampant because of a lack of access to fresh water. Even such problems exist in our own backyards in the 'developed' world. So, as part of myriad strategies to combat this problem, the United Nations put together a resolution in 2008 to formally recognize water as a human right.
It would change our unfair approach to governing our water resources throughout the world. Just as many countries have changed their laws when recognizing different human rights, so they would when recognizing water as one. It would make it harder for groups to privatize water resources and governments would have to put more effort into making clean water accessible for all their citizens.
The resolution was dismissed largely as a result of the Canadian federal government rejecting it. It argued that recognizing water as a human right would make it much easier for other countries to justify private bulk water exports out of Canada, especially under the North American Free Trade Agreement.
This is a very good point. Because Canada has so much of the world's remaining fresh water, it is in the unique position of potentially supplying the world of much its fresh water. If water becomes a universal human right, people all over the world would theoretically have access to Canada's water. This brings up all sorts of controversies with Canadian sovereignty. And while helping some of the world's more impoverished populations is noble, I wouldn't feel too happy if the folks in the Nevada desert keep watering their driveway (not that we're very sustainable users ourselves).
Of course, this is a global problem and recognizing water as a human right is not just about Canada. The benefits of recognizing access to water as a human right would be tremendous, but it is much more easily said than done. This is not to say that this issue should no longer be explored, but rather explored in greater depth. Noble causes are all well and good, but with something as integral and complex as water, nothing is simple.
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