Whose Water Is It, Anyway?: Taking Water Protection into Public Hands - Softcover

Maude Barlow

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1770414304 ISBN 13: 9781770414303

Publisher: Ecw Press, 2019

Synopsis

The Blue Communities Project encourages communities around the world to support the idea of a water commons framework, recognizing that water is a shared resource for all. To do this, the project offers resolutions that recognize water and sanitation as human rights, ban or phase out the sale of bottled water in public facilities and at public events, and promote publicly financed, owned, and operated water and wastewater services. Blue Communities is a short, practical handbook on how you can advocate for your community to become a blue community, and gives a history of the movement that started the project.

About this title

About the Author

Maude Barlow is the author of 17 books, including the bestselling Blue Water trilogy. She is the chair of the Council of Canadians and of the Washington-based Food and Water Watch. She is also a board member of the International Forum on Globalization and a councillor with the World Future Council. In 2008-09, she served as the first senior advisor on water to the 63rd president of the UN General Assembly and was a leader in the campaign to have water recognized as a human right by the UN. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

From the Back Cover

"This book is a blueprint for communities around the world." -- David Suzuki

"If water shortages and global unrest are on your mind -- and they should be -- read this book." -- Caryn Mandelbaum, Water Program Director, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation

The Blue Communities Project is dedicated to three primary things: that access to clean, drinkable water is a basic human right; that municipal and community water will be held in public hands; and that single-use plastic water bottles will not be available in public spaces. With its simple, straightforward approach, the movement has been growing around the world for a decade. Today, Paris, Berlin, Bern, and Montreal are just a few of the cities that have made themselves Blue Communities. In Whose Water Is It, Anyway?, renowned water justice activist Maude Barlow recounts her own education in water issues as she and her fellow grassroots water warriors woke up to the immense pressures on water in a warming world. Concluding with a step-by-step guide to making your own community blue, Maude Barlow's latest book is a heartening example of how ordinary people can effect enormous change.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

A Blue Community is founded on the understanding that water is a commons, a cultural and natural resource vital to our survival that must be accessible to all members of a community. Commons resources such as air, water and oceans, must be accessible to all members of a community. They are not privately owned but are held collectively to be shared, carefully managed and enjoyed by all. They are a public trust. Recognizing water as a public trust requires governments to protect water for a community’s reasonable use, and for future generations. As part of the commons, community rights and the public interest take priority over private water use. Public and community management of water requires transparent rules of access to water. Many private companies and industries need water for their operations but they must be subject to government oversight based on democratically agreed upon priorities for the use of local water sources.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ecw Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1770414304
• ISBN 13: 9781770414303
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128