Please address all replies to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sorry for inevitable duplicates. -------------------------------------------------- NATIONAL CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABILITY Educating for: - an awareness of the situation we face -an understanding of the causes of the situation - discovering means to change course - learning how to use these means National Centre for Sustainability Society, Tel: (250) 598 4610 1896 Watson Street e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Victoria, B.C. Canada V8R 6N6 Websites: http://www.islandnet.com/~ncfs/ncfs and http://www.islandnet.com/~ncfs/maisite February 21, 1999 Dear fellow humans: The insanity of our governments and business people is reaching an apex. Concurrently, we, ordinary people are passive or confused about a crucial issue: that of the sale of water and of its treatment as a commercial good or even worse, as a commodity. Let us try to re-focus on a fundamental reality: Water, air and land are in principle not commodities or goods for sale. They are the three basic supports of life on Earth. in the absence of any of the se three, there is simply no possibility to live. We have reached a degree of human load on the system where limits to the availability of clean breathable air, tillable soil and useable land, as well as drinkable water for all people are reached and in some cases already exceeded. This state of affairs is scientifically documented as well as proven by everyday' events around the world. The right to live is an essential principle in human civilisation. Every human being has a right to live. Depriving anyone of the necessary air, water and land to ensure that he or she can live is humanely unthinkable. Yet, the present socio-economic and political system, dominated as it is by an exclusivity given to trade in everything, aimed at maximum monetary profits for the most clever and astute among us, is deliberately ignoring this basic right. In all civilisations of the past, the right of people to have a fair share of drinking and cooking water was absolute. One never let anyone without water, unless there was a criminal will to eliminate that person. The service of water was in many cases paid for by those who could afford it and wanted it delivered under certain forms at certain places and times and in excess of strict requirements for their existence. Therefore, one can affirm that the idea of considering water as a good or a commodity, accessible only against payment is simply against all principles of civilisation as stated through History, and reaffirmed as recently as 1976 at the UN Habitat Conference in Vancouver.. In order to eliminate the inhumane and unacceptable trend to see water exclusively as a good or a commodity, let us state the following principles: 1. Water, being one of the three essential components of life, is not and cannot be considered a good or a commodity.. 2. Water, for the same reason and because of the fact that most drops of water outlive by far any human being cannot be rightly owned by any person. 3. Therefore, what can be granted and distributed among humans is not water per se, but the right to use it, with the principle that nobody can be left without an adequate minimum, sufficient to ensure his or her life at an acceptable quality. This principle is, by the way, an integral part of water law (quantities, quality and aquatic habitat) in many countries, including Canada and its provinces and territories (but not the USA). 4. Therefore, the use of water can be granted 4.1. as a first and overriding priority, to support life, human and non-human, everywhere it exists on land in the air and in water bodies. 4.2. to ensure a better quality of life for human beings, provided the first priority is met adequately everywhere in continuity 4.3. to be used as an input to the production of goods and services aimed at the market, provided that the two priorities above are met and that the water taken is restituted to nature in equal quantities and at an adequate quality 4.4. when the other three priorities are met, and provided the operation has no adverse effects on them (support to vegetal and animal life in particular), to transfer from a river catchment where it is in excess of local requirements to help meet any of these three priorities in another river catchment where amounts are insufficient, and 4.5. when the four priorities above are met everywhere and in continuity, to be used sparingly and with all due ecological care, for the commercial provision to people who want it and can afford the service. One could propose similar principles for air and land, but this is besides the present theme. Under those circumstances, any call on water from anywhere for bottling, bulk export or major diversion must first make absolutely sure that all priorities of a higher order are met and in particular that no form of life will be unduly deprived of the water it needs to exist, and that no person will be obliged to pay anything to access the minimum amounts of water of a good quality needed to ensure him or her a life of quality. Proposed for your review and approval, then signing with mention of you name, position, address, telephone and e-mail address. Respectfully, Yves Bajard, D.Sc. Secretary and founding member, National Centre for Sustainability, Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. Canada Note: 1. A copy of this text will be periodically sent to heads of governments, presidents of parliaments, heads of international agencies of all types around the world and to the media, with mention of the number of people who underwrote it, and of their country of origin. Note 2. Please circulate electronically or directly around you in printed form, and send the signed forms to us at the National Centre for Sustainability. We will coordinate and process results, in a thoroughly open and controllable manner., Persons of good will are invited to join and help do the job. Note 3. Please examine how water rights and related licenses are granted in you country, or region, with focus on the questions: does your government or the agencies in charge of administering water rights and water related licenses, deal with the right to use water, affect its quality or the aquatic habitat, or does it grant to licensees the full ownership of water? What is the meaning of "beneficial use" (if mentioned)? What are the priorities taken in consideration in the granting of water rights? (compare with the five levels mentioned above). For easier processing, please respond to the following questions: Are water and related rights in your country (or region) are: a. granting full ownership of water? b. granting only use of water? c. if you responded yes to question b. (and no to question a.) for what purposes can water and related rights be granted? d. What are the priorities considered in the granting of water and related licenses? * preservation of all types of life for all? * satisfaction of adequate supply to residents of the area, within the limits of water availability? * input to the production of goods and services aimed at commercial procurement on the market within the limits of water availability in the area? * diversion to nearby watershed where needs might arise relative to other priorities mentioned above? * packaging for trade under a form or another? Please rate these five options with numbers from 1 to 5; 1 being the highest priority and 5 the lowest. Your assessment must be related to existing laws and practices in your country or in your region. Any official in charge of the granting of licenses should be able to inform you on the subject. Thank you for your time and attention,
