Maude Barlow—author of the new book Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water (New Press)—has long argued that the growing trend of privatizing municipal water systems is setting off a global economic and ecological disaster.
In their thirst for profits, water companies undermine the health and financial stability of low-income people. This is what happens when drinking water is treated as a commodity (like Coca-Cola) rather than as a commons (like the air).
The solution to this growing global water crisis is to establish a new UN covenant asserting that water is a basic human right, she says on BanglaPraxis, the website of a Bangledeshi social justice organization. Barlow is chair of the Council of Canadians.