In 2003-4 the KAIROS education for action campaign focuses on justpeace and true security. Entitled Cultivating Just Peace, the campaigndenounces the vision of the War on Terror, and proposes alternativesbased on equality and basic human rights.

For the next three years, the Canadian Catholic Organization forDevelopment and Peace (CCODP) will be focusing on water. CCODP is a member of KAIROS, and its campaign on access to clean, affordablewater shares many links with the KAIROS campaign. This action sheetdraws the links between these two issues, and invites you to reflect —and act.

In 2003-4, CCODP invites Canadians to sign a Water Declaration whichmakes four key points:

Water is a sacred gift that connects all life

Access to clean water is a basic human right

The value of the Earth’s fresh water to the common good takes priority over any possible

commercial value

Fresh water is a shared legacy, a public trust and collective responsibility

Water and Security: Life before profit!

CANADA:Use these homepage links to click oneach organisation’s water campaignsor research.

DEVELOPMENT AND PEACE: www.devp.org

KAIROS: www.kairoscanada.org under Ecology

BLUE PLANET:www.blueplanetproject.net/english

COUNCIL OF CANADIANS: www.canadians.org under WaterCampaign

POLARIS INSTITUTE:www.polarisinstitute.org

PUBLIC CITIZEN (UNITED STATES): www.citizen.org/cmep/water

CCODP and KAIROS are not responsible for thecontent of external websites.

Water is vital to our health, economy, and our very lives.And water is a sacred gift we often take for granted.

Picture this: a community which relies on wells for itsdrinking and washing water discovers that the source iscontaminated. A glass of water — a necessity for life —has now become a threat to the health of the wholecommunity. The community becomes fearful: No longercan anyone bathe or drink without serious risk. Fuel forthe laborious process of boiling every mouthful of wateris bought at great price or gathered; water is trucked into the community, but it is never enough and manycan’t afford it.

The situation can’t continue forever, yet no one has anyready solutions. Governments at every level refuse totake responsibility. The corporations that step in can offershort term relief or long term delivery of water fromsomeone else’s source — but their presence means thatthe community loses control over its supply and that formany, perhaps the majority, the cost is out of reach.

Where is this community? Bolivia? Northern Manitoba?India? Ontario?

Water connects all lifeCanadians have among the world’s best access to cleanwater, yet many rural and Aboriginal communities inthis country lack access to water free of contamination.The rest of the country wastes water in ways unthinkablein the many parts of the world where clean water is at apremium, or outright impossible to secure.

Sixty-five percent of global water use goes to agriculture,while twenty-five percent goes to industry and ten percentto household use. The security of the global food supply is thus directly connected to the world’s supply of freshwater. Yet agricultural demands on that water mean thatsome rivers in the US, Mexico, and India no longer reachthe sea during dry seasons. In recent years, farmers on the Canadian Prairies have reminded us of the enormousimpact of drought, even in a wealthy country that canoffer at least limited aid to those who grow its food.

In the eyes of corporations, the absolute necessity of waterin agriculture and everyday living makes it a commoditybeyond compare. The buying and selling of water andwater services involves billions of dollars, and corporationsare lining up for a piece of “blue gold.”

When a community’s access to something as vital andbasic as water is threatened, violence can result. Asglobal demand outstrips supply in our fields, factoriesand homes, water conflicts between communities,nations and corporations are on the rise.

“ ”The wars of the 21st century

will be fought over water. Ishmael Serageldin, former president of the World Bank

The people of Cochabamba, Bolivia are survivors of sucha “water war”. In 1999, the Bolivian government sold thecity of Cochabamba’s water delivery system to Bechtel, a large American corporation. The mountainous areas ofBolivia are very dry, and Bolivia remains a poor countrydespite its mineral wealth. After privatization, waterrates rose by over 200%, putting even drinking waterout of reach of the average citizen. Protests began, andan army captain shot a protestor dead. In response, thegovernment turned over the local water system to thepublic again. Water rates went down — but Bechtel suedBolivia for US$25 million in lost revenues.

Water is a human rightWhen we explore the links between water and security,the issue of human rights quickly becomes central. Humanrights lay out the basis of our security; they name therights that protect our safety and well being, and theresponsibility shared by governments and individualsalike to respect those rights. Human rights covenants layout a wide range of rights and responsibilities, yet onlyvery recently have some countries announced that waterand access to it must be set down as a human right.Without that designation, water can be treated as acommodity to be bought and sold, rather than as a public good and common right for all.

In fact, Canada itself has resisted calls to acknowledgewater as a human right. The current Development andPeace campaign on water presses Canada to change astance it has taken at the UN Commission on HumanRights. In April 2002 Canada was the only one of 53countries on the Commission to vote ‘no’ on a resolutioncalling for access to clean water and sanitation to berecognized as a fundamental human right.

Some government sources argue that should water bedeclared a human right, Canada will be forced to exportwater to countries in need. It is not clear, however, thatthis is the case. And as long as water is not recognizedas a human right, it will be all too easy for free tradeagreements to view water and water delivery services asyet another commodity to be sold to those who canafford to pay.

Water is a common goodThe Canadian churches have long believed that tradeagreements must not overrule our basic rights as humanbeings. Yet recent trade agreements can and do overrulebasic rights, such as the right to water, food, housing,and a livelihood. The impact on communities is immense.One example is the ongoing push to privatize publicservices, which is a stated aim of many corporations andgovernments. This alarming trend links directly to theissue of safe and accessible water, because many tradeagreements, including the proposed Free Trade Area ofthe Americas (FTAA), aim to encourage privatization ofvital public services such as health care and water delivery.

Already, poor people in Asia, Africa and Latin America payon average twelve times more per litre of water than theirwealthier neighbours. Poor communities are much less likelyto be linked to public water pipes and must pay to havewater trucked in, or use natural sources which are oftencontaminated. Nor is this a problem unique to the globalSouth, since many Aboriginal communities in Canada lackaccess to clean drinking water. Poverty, geographical andpolitical isolation, and pollution of community lands andwaters by logging and industry make safe water anexpensive luxury in many Aboriginal communities.

Trade agreements are increasingly taking the publicgood and turning it into a private commodity. Even the production and clean-up of pollution and waste iscalculated in terms of what they contribute to the GrossDomestic Product. When the provision of human rightsas basic as clean water and health care are turned intomoney-making services, the security of communities andcountries alike is threatened. The case of water, a gift sovital to human life and to healthy eco-systems, showsthis starkly.

One in six people, most of whom live in Asia, Africa, or Latin America, have no access to clean drinking water.

Every 14 seconds someone dies from a disease caused by contaminated water.Most victims are children under the age of five.

Doubling the number of people with access to water and sanitation by 2015 is one of the key Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.

According to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and CulturalRights (Nov. 2002), the right to water is as fundamental a human right

as access to food.

How can we respond?You are invited to add your voice to the global people’smovement working for democratic control of water forthe common good by signing Development and Peace’sWater Declaration. Go to www.devp.org or contactccodp@devp.org or 416.922.1592.

We also ask you to support the KAIROS “Agenda forJust Peace” postcard campaign, which calls on our government and ourselves to ensure true security byupholding human rights, and redirecting our resourcesand energies from military security to meeting basicneeds throughout the world. Look under Current Campaignat www.kairoscanada.org or call 1.877.403.8933 x. 233.KAIROS’ work on water can also be found on our websiteunder Ecology: www.kairoscanada.org

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Developmentand Peace is a member-based organization founded in1967 by Canada’s bishops, laity and clergy to fightpoverty in developing countries and to promote greaterinternational justice. Inspired by Gospel values, particularly“the preferential option for the poor,” the goals ofDEVELOPMENT AND PEACE are to support initiativesby people in the global South to take control of theirlives and to educate Canadians about North-Southissues. Education, advocacy and fund-raising work hereat home is carried out by members from coast to coast.www.devp.org CCODP is a member of KAIROS.

KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives is apartnership of eleven Canadian churches and churchagencies committed to faithful action for justice andpeace. KAIROS includes a network of 100 local ecumenicalgroups, and many supporting local churches and communitygroups. We welcome anyone who wishes to get involvedwith justice work. Contact us: www.kairoscanada.org orinfo@kairoscanada.org Toll-free: 1.877.403.8933 129 StClair Ave. W, Toronto ON M4V 1N5