by JAIM CODDINGTON
From the Texas Oil Boom to the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, petroleum was undoubtedly the most notorious liquid of the last one hundred years. While some in the international marketplace still fixate on oil, recent political and environmental developments have helped nominate a stunning rival to oil’s supposed predominance: water!
It’s a substance to which Plato gave highest praise: “Only what is rare is valuable, and water, which is the best of all things…is the cheapest.”[1] However, in our time, water has become much rarer, or, in economic terms, more scarce than oil.
In the words of James Bond’s latest nemesis, Dominic Greene, “This [water] is the most valuable resource in the world and we need to control as much of it as we can.”[2] Global water resources have begun to dry up, even as water trading profitability increases. Although this situation may seem irrelevant for those with adequate water access, it truly could presage a global water catastrophe.
This predicament has not gone unrecognized by international bodies like the United Nations. In July 2010, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 64/292, which “Recognizes the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights…”[3].
This document is legally binding, and could serve as a key precedent for multilateral water management. Furthermore, most observers have interpreted the resolution as supporting public water rights [4].
On the other side of the spectrum, litigation like Sunbelt Water’s Chapter 11 NAFTA claim [5] and Canada’s parliamentary Bill S-11 [6] have raised concerns that potential water privatization will result in irreversible water commodification, confirming the private sector’s primacy over the public.
Canada’s massive glaciers, rivers, and lakes have afforded it with 7% of the world’s renewable fresh water [7]. This abundance has led to a relaxed national perspective on water use: Canadian daily water consumption per capita, about 4,400 liters [8], is currently the highest in the world behind the United States, with both a lack of adequate water utilities regulation and reckless industrial water use the culprits.
Lines have been drawn in the taiga, and a number of organizations have sprung up throughout the country to take a stand on the issue. One front in this international hydro-scuffle is dominated by private firms and the Canadian government, while the opposition consists mainly of environmentalist and civic action bodies.
Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s administration has consistently opposed UN initiatives to define water as a human right. At a 2008 UN Human Rights Council, the Canadian delegation blocked a move by Spain and Germany to officially recognize water and sanitation as human rights [8].
Canada had previously opposed two UN attempts to elevate water to human right status in 2002 and 2006 [8]. Additionally, the Harper government has tended to encourage privatization as a solution to mismanagement and inefficiency within Canada’s system of water utilities.
…
A quick glance at the rest of the hemisphere can provide further insight into the status of water policy. The United States, Canada’s thirstiest client, has water rights issues of its own. The country’s water infrastructure is managed by an eclectic patchwork of private and public water utilities.
…
Turning south, the condition of Brazilian water management provides a different glimpse at the future of regional and global water policy. Largely thanks to the Amazon River, Brazil’s annual volume of renewable freshwater is more than that of the United States and Canada combined [7]; however, the distribution of water is inequitable, as the northeast suffers chronic droughts while the southeastern region typically has an embarrassment of water riches.
One government after another has made efforts to address the capricious but economically compelling topic of Brazilian water resources. As early as 1934, the Brazilian Water Code sought to secure government control of Brazil’s waterways for hydroelectric projects [13]. This early doctrine set a precedent of a public, rather than private, system for water management.
In 1997, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso used this precedent to boost social and humanitarian water projects. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1981 and the Federal Constitution of 1988 had previously recognized the environmental value of sustainable public water use [14], and Cardoso’s initiative solidified water’s resistance to private acquisition.
In one of history’s most radical water policy decisions, Cardoso’s National Water Act of 1997 categorically defined all Brazilian waters as public property [15]. As a result, Brazil has both abundant renewable freshwater resources and the administrative ability to control them.
It is unlikely that the Brazilian government would accept any move to privatize water, and current President Dilma Rousseff’s populist stance suggests that water commodification has no place in Brazil for the time being.
There are still many inefficiencies within this nascent system; for example, poor water access in key agricultural states like Pernambuco and Paraíba leave the northeastern region vulnerable to unpredictable droughts [16]. The future of Brazilian water policy lies in expanded access and more workable distribution methods.
Brazzil for more