Maude Barlow, bestselling author and activist, explores the urgent need for water protection in a world that is running out of fresh water. In her newest book, Whose Water is it, Anyway? Taking water protection into public hands, she explores the how the Blue Communities Project gives people tools they can use to protect water.
The Blue Communities Project is dedicated to three primary things: that access to clean, drinkable water is a basic human right; that municipal and community water will be held in public hands; and that single-use plastic water bottles will not be available in public spaces. With its simple, straightforward approach, the movement has been growing around the world for a decade. Today, Paris, Berlin, Bern, and Montreal are just a few of the cities that have made themselves Blue Communities. Barlow recounts her own education in water issues as she and her fellow grassroots water warriors woke up to the immense pressures facing water in a warming world. Concluding with a step-by-step guide to making your own community blue, Maude Barlow’s latest book is a heartening example of how ordinary people can effect enormous change.
Maude Barlow is the international bestselling author of 19 books, including the bestselling Blue Water trilogy. She is the Honorary Chair of the Council of Canadians and of the Washington-based Food and Water Watch. She is on the executive committee of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and a Councillor with the World Future Council. In 2008–09, she served as Senior Advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the UN General Assembly and was a leader in the campaign to have water recognized as a human right by the UN. In 2005, she won the prestigious Right Livelihood Award, the “alternative Nobel.”
Reviews
- Maude Barlow’s Whose Water Is It Anyway? Taking Water Protection Into Public Hands teaches us there is hope amid the global environmental crisis, The Globe and Mail, November 13, 2019
- Canadian nationalist Maude Barlow urges B.C. government to stop licensing companies to export bottled water, The Georgia Straight, October 23, 2019
- Maude Barlow on Taking Back Our Right to Water, The Tyee, October 21, 2019
- On The Bookshelf: Whose Water Is It Anyway? Maude Barlow offers hope in a sea of despair when it comes to safe drinking water, Guelph Today, September 29, 2019
- Whose water is it anyway? “The global water crisis is about five years behind the climate crisis in people’s consciousness,” says author Maude Barlow, Now Magazine, September 23, 2019
- Protecting a precious resource on P.E.I., The Guardian PEI, September 23, 2019
- Barlow’s thirst for water justice rewarding, Winnipeg Free Press, September 21, 2019
- Grassroots Power: Leading Canadian water activist says community action needed to protect water rights, Great Lakes Now, September 18, 2019
