The global demand for clean water is doubling every 20 years. That's twice the rate at which the world's population is growing. By 2025, two-thirds of the world's population will not have enough water. For Canadians, in a nation so seemingly abundant in water resources, it's hard to believe that an impending global water crisis looms. However, there is little doubt that sound management of our water resources is crucial. According to Sergio Marchi, former Minister of International Trade, "Today's water will be tomorrow's oil." From the perspective of the World Bank, "The wars of the next century will be about water."

From the perspective of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Canadian Environmental Law Association and the Council of Canadians, global corporations are mounting a concerted effort to privatize water worldwide and to cash in on this impending crisis.

Take Sun Belt Water Corporation, a California company, for example. Sun Belt is suing the Government of Canada for $220 million because of an earlier British Columbia decision preventing the company from exporting billions of litres of fresh water from B.C. to California. Under the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement, once water is exported it becomes a commodity, and can be traded by North American companies without limit. If Sun Belt is successful in its suit, within the next few years Canada could lose control of its fresh water forever.

The bottom line, as articulated by Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians, is this: trading water is environmentally, economically and morally wrong. The NAFTA provision on 'proportionality' means that once the tap is turned on, we won't be able to turn it off. Once we start bulk water exports we can never end them so long as there is a drop of water left. No matter what environmental or other consequences we discover down the road, under the terms of NAFTA Canadian politicians will have no choice but to sit impotently by and allow this most precious, life-sustaining resource to be sold by transnational corporations to the highest bidder.

As CUPE points out, corporations are targeting cash strapped municipal governments. They are offering them a quick financial fix to today's pressing cash flow problems, by selling off control of our water supply. No one should be allowed to buy our water supply out from under us and then force us to buy it back one drop at a time.