“For better or worse,” write co-authors Bob Sandford and Merrell-Ann Phare in their new book, Ethical Water – Learning to Value What Matters Most, “human activity is affecting our planet’s hydrology.”
During the course of the year, between three and six times the amount of water that exists at any given moment in all the world’s rivers is now stored behind giant dams. What’s particularly worrisome, they point out, is that all those dams were built without anyone making the effort, or perhaps even being capable of knowing what the effects of such large scale disruption of the planet’s natural processes might be.
No matter the intentions, unco-ordinated dam building, irrigation diversions and the related impacts of deforestation all carried out to satisfy an immediate need has resulted in the waters of 17 major river systems around the world no longer reaching the sea.
While the traditional ways of indigenous peoples view humans’ use of water as governed by a relationship of mutual responsibility, they explain, Western cultures employ an ideal more akin to “I take and water gives”.
“The Western idea implies a one-way relationship that is out of balance and ultimately destructive and unsustainable,” the pair write.
As such, in this latest of publisher Rocky Mountain Books’ manifesto series of compact yet weighty hard-cover books, Sandford, chair of the Canadian arm of the UN’s Water for Life initiative, and Phare, executive director and legal counsel to the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources, outline crucial steps for Canadian and global society to take in order to sustainably manage consumption of this fundamental element to all life.
Chief among the shortcomings of the Western approach to water, the authors suggest, is that current economic and legal models only take into account external limits, such as licenses, neglecting nature’s role in purifying and maintaining our flow.
The crucial starting point, the authors suggest, begins with asking the question: “What kind of future are we trying to create?”
With many priorities, ranging from ensuring adequate water for ecosystems to conservation efforts made by humans to mitigating the impacts of a changing climate to building the appropriate and optimum governance structure, the answer to that question, they say, must be viewed as an absolute baseline.
And with the spectre of water scarcity increasing around the world, the time for action is now, the authors insist. They argue that the insatiable forces of supply and demand “have mobilized the market economy’s expansive profit-seeking aspirations with the aim of turning water into an object of market interest and activity.”
Water, however, is already a $400 billion a year – and rapidly growing – industry. Treating water as if it is just another natural resource, however, they insist, is the wrong approach. Ultimately, alternative energy sources can and will be developed to replace oil, but in the case of water, there is not and never will be, any substitute.
While current water practices have rendered the world’s freshwater supply insufficient to meet the demands of many of the fastest growing countries, most Canadians take water completely for granted, oblivious to the fact most of this country’s generous supply lies in the north, far from where the vast majority of Canadians live – within 300 kilometres of the U.S. border.
After presenting the view in regards to Canada’s freshwater picture in Part 1, followed by a detailed, clear-cut argument explaining why Canada needs a new water ethic in Part 2, Part 3 of this book outlines step by step what that new water ethic should encompass through seven basic principles.
They include: recognizing nature’s need for water; embracing the fact that water is inextricably linked to human health by establishing and enforcing mandatory, legally binding drinking water standards; honouring the First Nations water ethic; making a strong public commitment to expand safe, reliable public drinking water supply and accepting for all time that bottled water is not a solution to anything; breaking down institutional territoriality and jurisdictional fragmentation, including the recognition that surface water and groundwater are part of the same supply; that governments must send appropriate economic signals to effect change, which would begin with a clear definition of ‘water rights’, including accepting the limits of water markets and recognizing the link between water and energy; and finally, acknowledging that success cannot be achieved without political leadership.
A new Canadian water ethic, the authors admit, cannot be achieved without effort and sacrifice. But, they add, Canadian prosperity cannot be maintained without those sacrifices.
“Because we have not attended to matters related to water policy in this country for more than two decades, it will take a great deal of collaboration, patience and uncommon courage and vision to lead Canada in the direction of a sustainable future,” they conclude.
Within the deep blue covers of Ethical Water flow a clear image of why the current Western World’s view on how to manage water is profoundly unsustainable, all capped with a sensible, concise prescription for a vital solution.
