This March 22 is World Water Day, the first since the United Nations General Assembly recognized the human right to water and sanitation.
Chapters are being encouraged to highlight their current water campaigns in the weeks around World Water Day. We know that many chapters across the country are doing extraordinary work in opposing water markets, licenses for bottled water takings, privatization, Schedule 2, radioactive shipments on the Great Lakes, fracking, dumpsites and quarries, CETA and other threats to water.
It should be highlighted that:
1- the Toronto chapter will be holding its second annual Water Forum on March 20, which will feature Blue Planet Project organizer Anil Naidoo and trade campaigner Stuart Trew;
2- Montreal chapter activist Abdul Pirani will be speaking at a public forum at Concordia University on March 22;
3- the Peterborough-Kawarthas chapter – through the Safe and Green Energy coalition – will be participating in the public hearings that start on March 21 on the proposal for two new nuclear reactors on Lake Ontario;
4- in that the Harper government has chosen World Water Day to table the 2011-12 federal budget, we will be highlighting how the federal government has failed to recognize the human right to water and sanitation and adequately fund public water and wastewater systems in Canada, including in our chapter in the Alternative Federal Budget;
5- we will be releasing two national polls on water, likely on March 21;
6- we anticipate that we will be able to release Maude Barlow’s paper on the Great Lakes as a commons and public trust on March 21;
7- we have ordered more than 3,000 of the very popular ‘I drink tap water’, ‘water is a human right’ and ‘keep water public’ buttons for distribution by chapter activists, as well as stickers;
8- BC-Yukon organizing assistant Ava Waxman will be attending the British Columbia Teachers Federation annual convention in Victoria on March 20-22 to highlight water issues;
9- Michigan lawyer Jim Olson is scheduled to speak to audiences in Vancouver and Edmonton on the threat of water markets on March 22-24;
10- we expect that the film ‘Water Makes Money’ – that includes Maude Barlow – will be shown on the ARTE channel in France on March 22 to a wide audience;
11- we also anticipate that we will be taking part in an action in Wakefield around World Water Day to highlight the threat of the construction of a highway expansion, which may be underway at that point;
12 – on the evening of March 21, Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow will be ‘in conversation’ talking about the danger of bottled water at the William Doo Auditorium in Toronto, (tickets $2 for student, $5 general admission) at waterworkinggroup@gmail.com;
13- and much more!
To see our page that will track chapter actions this World Water Day, please go to http://canadians.org/water/issues/World_Water_Day/actions.html.
For more on World Water Day 2011, go to www.canadians.org/worldwaterday.
