 
NEWS RELEASE
Water Water Day: Canadian groups mobilize for the right to water
at home and abroad
Monday March 20, 2006
For Immediate Release
(Toronto) On March 22, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
and the Council of Canadians will join forces with faith-based organizations
Development and Peace and KAIROS: Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
to mobilize thousands of Canadians on World Water Day. Through marches
and public events held in 60 cities across the country, the organizations
are demanding that the federal government ensure public control
of water resources both in Canada and around the world.
The events will coincide with demonstrations held on the same day
in Mexico City at the site of the World Water Forum (WWF). The WWF
is a gathering of corporate and municipal interests whose agenda
is to privatize access to safe drinking water. The organizations
mobilizing in Canada have sent delegates to the international civil
society forum being held in Mexico City to counter the WWF.
"We are on the threshold of a global water crisis," says
Maude Barlow, national chair of the Council of Canadians. "If
current trends continue, two thirds of the people on the planet
will not have access to clean water by the year 2025."
The mass Canadian mobilization from coast to coast represents growing
public concern about water issues in Canada and abroad. It is part
of a global movement opposed to water privatization.
Canadians need to protect their municipal water delivery and wastewater
services by keeping them public. "Public private partnerships
take the delivery and management of water services out of the hands
of municipal governments, resulting in poorer quality services at
higher costs and lack of local control," says Paul Moist of
CUPE.
KAIROS believes there are moral and spiritual imperatives to ensuring
clean water remains in public control. “Without water we cannot
live,” says Mary Corkery, executive director of KAIROS. “It
is a necessity of life. Any denial of access to water represents
a lack of respect and concern for basic human rights.”
"The issues surrounding water have struck a chord with Canadians,"
says Development and Peace Executive Director Michael Casey. "They
know that safeguarding water as a common good is essential to our
well-being and must take priority over commercial interests. They
also want to ensure that people in the global South do not suffer
from actions that deny them access to clean water."
The Canadian organizations are calling on the federal government
to help prevent a worldwide water crisis by creating a national
water policy that bans the export of water, creates national standards
for clean drinking water and commits federal funds to help municipalities
and Aboriginal communities upgrade water infrastructure.
Internationally, the groups demand that the Canadian government
protect water by defending it as a human right. On two occasions,
the Canadian government has formally opposed moves by the United
Nations to enshrine the right to water in international law.
Both in Canada and in Mexico, Canadians are sending a clear message:
water is a human right, not another commodity to be supplied by
the market on the basis of wealth.
Media Contacts
KAIROS: Canada Ecumenical Justice Initiatives
Adiat Junaid
Communications Coordinator
(416) 463 5312 ext. 223,
ajunaid
Development and Peace
Jack Panozzo Toronto
(416) 922-1592, ext. 222
jack.panozzo
or
Philippe Doucet Montreal
(514) 257-8711, poste 400
philippe.doucet
Council of Canadians
Meera Karunananthan
Communications
(613) 233-4487 ext 234 or (613) 795-8685 (cell)
meera
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
Debra Huron
CUPE Communications
(613) 237-1590 ext. 268
dhuron
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