Maude Barlow Addresses UN General Assembly

UNITED NATIONS – April 22 – Food & Water Watch Board Chair Maude Barlow addressed the United
Nations General Assembly today to support the Bolivian call for an
annual “International Mother Earth Day” celebration. Her speech was a
call to action to implement the human right to water and abandon the
“hard path” of large-scale technology  – dams, diversion and
desalination  – in favor of the “soft path” of conservation, rainwater
and storm water harvesting, recycling, alternative energy use,
municipal infrastructure investment and local, sustainable food
production.

Barlow’s speech comes at a time when the quest for a formal right to
water instrument is gathering strength both at the United Nations and
within countries. She is hopeful that it is only a matter of time
before the “blue covenant” she called for in her speech will be a
reality.

“The problem is that we humans have seen the Earth and its water
resources as something that exists for our benefit and economic
advancement rather than as a living ecological system that needs to be
safeguarded if it is to survive,” Barlow said. “The human water
footprint surpasses all others and endangers life on Earth itself.”

Barlow, who was appointed last year as senior advisor on water to
the president of the United Nations General Assembly,  also
participated in an afternoon program with Bolivian President Evo
Morales, Brazilian writer-theologian Leonardo Boff, and United Nations
President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann. Barlow also briefed more than 35
countries and met with key United Nations agencies on this visit as
part of her ongoing commitment to the human right to water.

“Water must be seen as a commons that belongs to the Earth and all
species alike. It must be declared a public trust that belongs to the
people, the ecosystem and the future and preserved for all time and
practice in law,” Barlow said. “Clean water must be delivered as a
public service, not a profitable commodity. We need to assert once and
for all that access to clean, affordable water is a fundamental human
right that must be codified in nation-state law and as a full covenant
at the United Nations.”

“Watersheds must be protected from plunder and we must revitalize
wounded water systems with widespread watershed restoration programs,”
Barlow urged.

Simply put, we must leave enough water in aquifers, rivers and lakes
for their ecological health. This must be the priority: the
precautionary principle of ecosystem protection must take precedence
over commercial demands on these waters.”

Read Ms. Barlow’s remarks to the UNGA.