WATER ISN’T A BUSINESS, IT’S A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT

Maude Barlow, awarded for her work to recognise water as a human right, tells us about the global water crisis and the risky yet relatively unknown connection between water protection and commercial agreements.

Safeguarding peoples’ health and wellbeing through the protection of the environment, water and food. To accomplish this, we must establish a democratic legislative process in the interest of citizens, free from the pressures of industrial lobbies and able to invert a development trend that continues to favour environmental pollution, water contamination and climate change. This is the idea suggested by Maude Barlow, one of the leading experts on the sustainable use of water resources who received the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the alternative Nobel prize, in 2005 for the recognition of water as a human right during her tenure as Special Rapporteur of the United Nations.

CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement approved by the European Parliament, is likely to crystallise the current economic development model, undermining the efforts of environmentalists who are fighting for new environmental protection regulations. We met Barlow during the forum for water movements and the campaign to stop TTIP/CETA in Rome. She explains the subtle but vital bond between commercial agreements and environmental protection, starting from what she calls a global water crisis.

Read the interview with Maude Barlow on Lifegate