W.A.T.E.R. seeks moratorium to protect B.C's groundwater

VALEMOUNT, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

Today, corporate accountability advocates and environmental activists are asked to support a moratorium on groundwater exploitation in British Columbia and join the global movement to demand an immediate end to for-profit bottling of drinking water.

Threatened by an application for a second water bottling plant beside the Village of Valemount, area residents were amazed to discover there is little to no legislative protection of groundwater throughout the province of B.C. Under current legislation an individual or company may extract up to 75 litres/second (989 gallons/minute) without Provincial Environmental Assessment, without complete mapping of the aquifer, without knowledge of future recharge rate, without licensing, without fees, without public consultation (unless re-zoning is necessary), without responsibility to the surrounding environment, without monitoring for volume, without limit of hours per day, without respect for seasonal and/or unseasonal levels, without monitoring for environmental impacts, without royalties, without protection for domestic users (present or future), without provision for potential effects of climate change.

Working collectively as W.A.T.E.R. (Water Across Time our Environmental Responsibility) the group has researched and circulated information about the detrimental impacts of the bottled water industry and is determined to end the exploitation. WATER now joins the BOYCOTT BOTTLED WATER advocates for the following reasons:
· The privatization of public resources
· The threat of aquifer depletion
· Short and long term environmental impacts
· Lack of legislation to protect groundwater and the life it supports
· The ethics of commodification of a necessity for life
· The implications related to Free Trade agreements
· Uncertainty in the face of potential impacts of climate change
· First Nations interests
· Impacts of transportation and fossil fuel consumption within the industry
· Lack of environmental and social impact studies
· Apparent disregard for the spiritual **value of water

Through its research, WATER has become encouraged by the many other advocacy groups with similar goals, in particular, the Blue October Campaign, celebrating Uruguay's historic vote (October 31, 2004) to amend their constitution to recognize the fundamental right of water. That constitution now guarantees that piped water and sanitation be available to all Uruguayans and it bans for-profit corporations from supplying this public good. If the people of Uruguay can accomplish such a fundamental human right and dignity, then surely the people of British Columbia can do likewise.

The Blue October Campaign celebrates Uruguay's initiative by challenging corporate control of water through global action. While advocacy groups throughout North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia do their part, WATER has decided it can best contribute to the campaign by co-ordinating a province-wide petition calling for an immediate moratorium on commercial groundwater exploitation in B.C. Water is fundamentally essential and needs to be entrenched as every person's environmental right and responsibility; through this moratorium, WATER hopes to protect the very lifeblood of the land and the rights of access to it, for all generations to come.