Water, water, everywhere, and not a drop to drink."
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner


"There is a global struggle emerging between commodity and community. Commodity is winning. It is time to draw a line in the sand and say `here is where the rights of commodities end and the rights of communities begin.' Water is that dividing line.'
Wendy Holm, B.C. agrologist


"I have witnessed the conversion of my land from a water-abundant country to a water-stressed country. I saw the last perennial stream in my valley run dry in 1982 because of the mining of aquifers and catchments. I have seen tanks and streams dry up on the Deccan plateau as eucalyptus monocultures spread. I have struggled with communities in water-rich regions as pollution poisoned their water sources"
Vandana Shiva


Waterscapes
Natural Resources Canada

Waterscape Posters are a new poster series that illustrate water issues for communities across Canada. All poster content is available on this website.

More: http://geoscape.nrcan.gc.ca/h2o/index_e.php


Maybe Obama was right on NAFTA
Renegotiating pact may be the only way to save our water, a new book warns
Mel Hurtig
The Star, April 26, 2008

Prior to the Canada-U.S. free-trade negotiations, incredibly, Canada's chief negotiator, Simon Reisman, was said to be in favour of allowing water exports to the United States, but fortunately many officials in Ottawa and others on the negotiating team were not.

During the lengthy debates in Canada about the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) in the mid- to late-1980s, Canadians were repeatedly assured that there was nothing to worry about – water was not included in the proposed agreement. There were full-page, big-business ads in newspapers across the country that said expressly, "water is not included." Either big business was intentionally lying to Canadians, or they hadn't taken the time to study closely the proposed agreement.

Water is, in fact, part of both the FTA and NAFTA because of the definition in the agreements of "goods" as defined in GATT's (General Agreement on Tariff and Trade's) harmonized commodity coding system, which includes Tariff Item 22.01: "Water: All natural water other than sea water."

Moreover, in Annex 702.1 of NAFTA, any doubt about water being included is removed so that water is clearly "a tradeable good" subject to all the onerous FTA clauses and to NAFTA's terrible Chapter 11, which allows U.S. companies to sue Canadian governments. (In case you think this is just theoretical, the American Sun Belt Water Company filed suit in 2000 against Canada for $200 million because of British Columbia's refusal to allow the export of water to the United States.)

NAFTA Article 309 prevents governments from restricting or prohibiting the export of goods. Moreover, if any favourable treatment is available to Canadian investors, Article 1102 accords American investors the same treatment, which means American companies must be granted national treatment status on a par with Canadian companies. It's important to understand this. NAFTA laws are supernational; that is, they supersede national laws, whether they relate to resources or social policy.

Next to the United States, on a per-capita basis, Canada is the highest user of water in the world, well above the OECD average, and ahead of 28 other OECD nations. We also have the third largest supply of fresh water but only about 6 per cent to 7 per cent of the world's renewable supply, much less than the oft-quoted 20 to 25 per cent.

In terms of water withdrawal as a percentage of annual availability, Norway is at 1 per cent while Canada, along with Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, and Sweden, is at 2 per cent. By comparison, the United States is at 19 per cent and rapidly headed higher. In short, as almost everyone knows, the U.S. is running out of water, and global warming isn't going to help.

How vulnerable are our water supplies in relation to potential American NAFTA demands?

Economist Erin Weir explains: "Free trade does not force Canada to export bulk quantities of water to the U.S. However, if any provincial government permitted such exports, Americans could use NAFTA to require all other provinces to do likewise. The prospect of water being commodified like other natural resources is of great concern to some Canadians."That's an understatement. Public opinion polls showthat Canadians are overwhelmingly opposed to water exports. Any politician who allows them won't last long in office. Yet as sure as you are reading these words, there will soon be huge pressure from the U.S. to gain access to our supplies, and some character may see no harm in exporting water. (Someone like Roger Grimes, for example, who, as premier of Newfoundland, planned bulk water exports to the U.S. until public opposition and financial pressure from Ottawa changed his mind.)

B.C. agrologist Wendy Holm has it right: "There is a global struggle emerging between commodity and community. Commodity is winning. It is time to draw a line in the sand and say `here is where the rights of commodities end and the rights of communities begin.' Water is that dividing line."

Howard Mann is an international lawyer based in Ottawa who specializes in sustainable development law. I had a long conversation with Mann in April 2007. He is completely clear: Once you start exporting water you have crossed "a tripwire," setting a process in motion that will be very hard to stop. The federal government has failed to do its job of protecting our water because we never properly closed the door to exports. In that conversation, Mann told me, "We should have clearly and firmly said no! We have the jurisdiction and we should not allow water exports. Sure as hell, a U.S. government or private firm is going to try to use our existing trade agreements to get access to our water.

"Yes, absolutely, Washington will take action itself or encourage private U.S. corporations to do so with the government's backing."

The respected former GATT trade negotiator Mel Clark is equally clear. While under the GATT Canada had complete control of its water, under the FTA and NAFTA, the agreements "transfer control of Canada's water to the U.S. They give Americans the same rights as Canadians to our water and they override the constitutional right of provinces to control water in their territories and accord American corporations the right to sue the federal government and/or the provinces if they fail to respect NAFTA.

"NAFTA national treatment is unlimited and there is no exception for water. Sooner or later, Americans will invoke their NAFTA rights to import water from us. We'll have no right to stop them. The only way to regain control of our water is to terminate the FTA (Article 2106) and NAFTA (Article 2205)."

Meanwhile, as the noted Canadian fresh water scientist David Schindler has reported, rivers and lakes on the prairies are drying up, and some river flows are already down between 40 and 80 per cent. At the same time, the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto is clear: Federal and provincial bans against bulk water exports "probably will not stand up to court challenges" as long as the FTA and NAFTA remain in place.

Canadians had better decide to protect their precious water supplies, or soon it will be too late to do so.

From The Truth About Canada by Mel Hurtig. In stores Tuesday, April 29. A Douglas Gibson Book, published by McClelland & Stewart Ltd. Reprinted with permission.