1. Access to Safe Water: A Crisis

2. Water in Canada Canadians rank second only to the United States in terms of highest per capita water use in the developed world.

3. Water in Canada A “general lack of awareness” about the pressures placed on Canadian water supplies, combined with a “lack of strong water conservation ethic, which is encouraged by the myth of water abundance” helps to explain this poor standing.

4. Water in Canada Canadians consume about 1.5 million cubic metres or approximately 4,400 litres-per-capita- per-day, making Canada one of the highest per capita users in the world. Municipal per capita use across Canada averaged 638 litres/day.

5. Water in Canada The amount of fresh water needed for human survival is approximately 5 litres-per capita-per- day.

6. Water in Canada However, not all people in Canada are using water wastefully. Many First Nations reserves do not have access to piped water or clean, uncontaminated water and they are acutely aware of their lack of access to this necessary resource.

7. Water in Canada In addition, some other communities (such as Walkerton, Ontario) have had boil water advisories for as long as they can remember. Other communities, have intermittent advisories. Not all Canadians have access to fresh, clean drinking water.

8. Water in Canada Thermal power generation (including fossil fuels and nuclear stations) accounted for 64% of Canada’s total water intake. Agriculture is the #1 consumer of water, with only 25% of the water it withdraws being returned to its source. Estimates of bottles water’s annual contribution to the Canadian economy ranged from $7.5 to $23 billion.

9. Water Facts Consider the following: The 2006 United Nations Human Development Report, focusing on water, notes the following: Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.

10. Water Facts Almost two in three people lacking access to clean water survive on less than $2 a day, with one in three living on less than $1 a day. More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.

11. Water Facts Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%. 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day.

12. Water Facts In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the USA at 600+ liters a day per person.

13. Water Facts Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhea. The loss of 443 million school days each year from water-related illness.

14. Water Facts Close to half of all people in developing countries suffering at any given time from a health problem caused by water and sanitation deficits. WHO estimates that: 80% of the world’s diseases are caused in some ways by contaminated water.

15. Water Facts Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water. To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit. The costs associated with health spending, lack of education, productivity losses, and labour diversions are greatest in some of the poorest countries.

16. Water Facts: Access to Safe Water 400 million children (1 in 5 from the developing world) have no access to safe water. 1.4 million children will die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation.

17. Water Facts: Access to Safe Water Rivers that serve as water supply are also used for waste disposal, washing, and irrigation Essentially, because of lack of clean water supply, basic health care is not easily provided in developing countries. Source: State of the World’s Children, 2005, UNICEF.

18. Water Facts: Disproportionate Water Use A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Developing World (Third World). Source: Maude Barlow, Water as a Commodity – The Wrong Prescription, The Institute for Food and Development Policy, Backgrounder, Summer 2001, Vol. 7, No. 3)

19. Water Facts: Corporations - Water for Profit “Already, corporations own or operate water systems across the globe that bring in about $200 billion a year.” “Yet they serve only about 7 percent of the world’s population, leaving a potentially vast market untapped.” Source: John Tagliabue, As Multinationals Run the Taps, Anger Rises Over Water for Profit, New York Times, August 26, 2002)

20. Coca-Cola, Water + Poverty Coke Bottling Plant in India: An Education Video about the Issues with Coca-Cola 4:02 minutes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqE40Oc1CXo&fea ture=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqE40Oc1CXo&fea ture=related

21. Bottled Water Drains Life-Sustaining Resources Corporations have been meeting behind closed doors for more than a decade, vying for control of the world's water resources and the increase of their profits.

22. Bottled Water Drains Life-Sustaining Resources Corporations such as Suez, Coke and Nestlé have lobbied officials at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to make industry- friendly water policies a condition of developing countries' debt assistance.

23. Bottled Water Drains Life-Sustaining Resources In this process, corporations have actually taken water away from developing countries and have made them dependant on purchasing their soda/bottle water instead of accessing their local water sources. They push trade ministers and officials at the World Trade Organization (WTO) to craft industry-biased trade agreements.

24. Biased Trade Agreements And recently, in March of 2006, Coca-Cola sponsored the World Water Forum, where giant corporations met with representatives of the United Nations, governments, and the World Bank, to promote profit-oriented water policies around the world.

25. Propaganda Bottled water corporations, led by Coke, Nestlé, and Pepsi, have sold us a bill of goods. Misleading advertising is fuelling the explosive growth of the bottled water business.

26. Propaganda Bottled water corporations spend as much as $150 million a year to portray their products as 'pure,' 'safe,' 'clean,' 'healthy' and superior to tap water. All claims with dubious scientific support at best.

27. A Serious Threat The reality behind the slick PR (public relations) and marketing is this: Bottled water threatens our health and our ecosystems, costs thousands of times what tap water costs, and undermines local democratic control over a common resource.

28. A Serious Threat Bottled water corporations take water from underground springs and municipal sources without regard to scarcity or human rights. Corporations are trying to make a profit-driven commodity out of a precious resource that rightfully and historically have been a public good.

29. Water is a Human Right Since 2006, NGOs from around the world and thousands of protestors have converged in the host cities during the World Water Forums with one clear and unifying message: Water is a fundamental human right, not a commodity to be bought and sold for profit!

30. Change Needed As multi- and trans-national corporations increasingly try to control water supplies, international resistance builds. People around the world are calling for global solutions.

31. Change Needed Critical decisions about the world's water must be made democratically, in full public view, by government officials who are accountable. Decisions about a life-giving substance and human right must not be left to multi-/trans-national corporations and corporate shareholders.

32. The Story of Bottled Water If multi-/trans-national corporations control our water, they can determine who gets it and who doesn't. Future wars will not be over land or religion but over our precious water resources.

33. The Story of Bottled Water http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se12y9hSOM0

34. Films about Bottled Water/Water Tapped Bottled Life Flow: For the Love of Water Blue Gold: World Water Wars DamNation Thirst Water on the Table The Water Front Liquid Assets: The Big Business of Water

35. March 2014