Photo: Last night, chapter activist Claire Adamson spoke to Montreal city council about the right to water and concerns about bottled water.
The Council of Canadians Montreal chapter has asked Mayor Denis Coderre to support Montreal becoming a blue community. Chapter activists Abdul Pirani and Claire Adamson were in Ville-Marie yesterday evening to ask the mayor and city council to support this initiative.
Pirani told the mayor that, “The Blue Community Project encourages municipalities and indigenous communities to adopt a water commons framework [including]:
– recognizing water and sanitation as human rights
– banning or phasing out the sale of bottled water in municipal facilities and at municipal events
– promoting publicly financed, owned and operated water and wastewater services.
In February 2011, Montreal Gazette reporter Michelle Lalonde wrote, “I don’t see why Montreal shouldn’t be the first Blue Community in Canada… the steps are almost achieved.”
At that time, she highlighted that, “five years ago, Montreal declared access to clean drinking water a right for its citizens”, that Montreal has a ‘Blue Patrol’ that encourages water not to be wasted and that “we need to take this one step further, with a council declaration that Montreal supports the public management of water treatment and distribution”, and that “Montreal has already pledged, in its Sustainable Development Plan 2010 to 2015, to ban the sale of bottled water from municipal buildings, and to ensure there are adequate water fountains available on city properties.”
In the five years that have passed since then, there are now 18 blue communities (with a total of 1,034,515 residents) in Canada, but it’s not too late for Montreal to join this growing list. There are also now a number of blue communities internationally.
And it seems Coderre is open to the idea.
Pirani tells us, “Mr. Coderre said that Montreal is already a blue community. Everything is in place and they are able to meet all the conditions. He said he will have a look at the documents I submitted, look at the procedure and arrive at the process. He did not have any hesitation in answering and it seemed he will follow through.”
For more on our blue communities project, please click here.
