The Barrie Examiner
Clean water advocate speaks at festival
Posted By DOUGLAS GLYNN, OSPREY NEWS NETWORK

The Ontario government should protect this area's pristine water supply by stepping in and saying no to landfill Site 41, the cofounder of the Blue Planet Project said Saturday.

Maude Barlowe, Council of Canadians national chairperson and international advocate for clean water, told people attending the Elmvale Water Festival Saturday that the province needs to recognize water is a public trust.

Barlowe's latest book,Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water, deals with the growing shortage of clean water around the world.

The Blue Planet project she helped found believes securing the right to water is critical to the future of the planet.

"Just because we (in Canada) live in a water-rich country doesn't mean we can treat water the way we do," she said. "We are cavalier about our water."

She said Ontario needs to improve its clean water legislation, which she described as a "stop-gap" measure.

"We need to protect groundwater and to ensure clean water is recognized as a public trust, as they have done in the State of Vermont," she said.

Under Vermont's law, the groundwater basically belongs to all Vermonters and water-taking is tightly controlled.

"Governments are denying the impact water-taking is having. There's no question climate change is affecting the Great Lakes," Barlowe said. "Evaporation takes place quicker and the ice packs aren't as thick. But the states and provinces bordering the Great Lakes take four trillion litres of water from the lakes daily. But, between us and nature we don't put that much back.

"The federal government needs to set national standards, and provincial governments need to take much more seriously their responsibility for the contaminates affecting the water supply."

Invasive species reaching the Great Lakes from ocean-going vessels is another growing concern for Barlowe.

"We need legislation. We haven't had a new water act in this country since 1970," she said. "It's time to map our groundwater and to stop the commercial export of our water. I'm convinced it's not going to be very long until the U. S. is going to start wanting Canada's water."

She says it is time for a high-level summit with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U. S. President George W. Bush, and the premiers of the provinces and the governors of the Great Lakes states, scientists and First Nations representatives.

"Anybody who thinks the Great Lakes could never be destroyed doesn't know what's happening in other countries," she said.

Barlowe also cautioned against the exporting of water as a commodity.

"Once we allow the export of water for commercial purposes, then the rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) click in, and you have to maintain the level of exports you have allowed.

"If, 10 years after you allow the export of water, you realize the watershed is being destroyed, you can't stop the exports. You are committed under NAFTA agreement to continue exporting the same amount of water, even if it means you are experiencing shortages. That's why Canada needs to ban the commercial export of water; why water should be removed from the NAFTA agreement."