Barlow sounds alarm on water

BY ALBERT KRAMBERGER

editor@transcontinental.ca

Environmentalist Maude Barlow's sounding of the alarm on fresh water didn't fall on deaf ears during her speech at Macdonald College's Founder's Day ceremony held last Thursday in Ste. Anne de Bellevue.

Barlow, an author and head of the Council of Canadians advocacy group, spoke for about 40 minutes before a few hundred people at McGill University's campus for environmental and agricultural sciences. She said the world is in a "crisis" mode regarding clean water, both in the Third World and industrialized nations.

"It's not that the Earth is running out of water, the Earth is running out of available fresh water," she said. "We've actually started to interrupt the hydrologic cycle in many parts of the world."

Solutions include everything from conservation, cutting pollution to strong legislation to protect the resource, she said.

Caithlyn Chappel, 20, a bioresource engineering student, said Barlow's presentation on water was welcomed.

"It's great to hear urgency; it's something that young people almost never hear, especially grounded urgency," she said, adding water is an issue we need to take seriously.

Fellow bioresource engineering student Sara Finely, 29, who is working on her master's degree, agreed with Barlow about the "myth of abundancy" Canadians have about our water supply.

"It's very prevailing in our society, even amongst young people," she said. "There's nothing alarmist about what she is telling us."

Chappel said the most difficult thing after graduation for her will be finding a job she feels good about. She said she will review a company's background and any of its off-shoot enterprises before she accepts working there.

"There are so many opportunities when graduating from engineering," she said. "But the question is, who do you want to work for and what ethically will you compromise for that job. For me, I'm not willing to compromise."

Chandra Madramootoo, dean of McGill's faculty of agricultural and environmental sciences, said Macdonald College has a major role to play regarding the future of water, adding the university has been developing its world-class program for 50 years. "We have a very long-standing, credible, recognized program in water," he said. "This wasn't something that was built overnight because of a water crisis."

Madramootoo said it was great to hear the global perspective on water presented by Barlow.

"You can't solve any of these political problems unless you have strong technical, scientific people on the ground," he added. "Who's collecting the data, who's measuring water quantity and quality, who's doing the analysis? (Our graduates) will be able to study the problem, analyse the data, make sense of it, and find a solution."

As for university-educated people entering the private sector, Barlow told The Chronicle they should help direct industry to live by rules that reflect sustainable development.

"Wherever they go, whether it's law or urban planning, we need people who have a water consciousness," she said, adding they could convince the private sector to change their practices and be more environmentally friendly.

"We have got to teach sustainable water management," she said, adding it should start as early as high school. "Our universities are incredibly important places," she said, adding this is where many students usually become politically aware.

Meanwhile, Barlow said Canada needs a new national water act to protect the resource, citing the pulp and paper and mining industries as major polluters in the country, adding a federally-imposed ban on the commercial export of water is also required.

"It's absolutely crucial," she told The Chronicle. "We need an act that's going to protect our drinking water supply, to determine where our ground water supplies are to make sure they are not being over-pumped and to maintain the integrity of the water system in Canada."

She said there is some political will across party lines in Ottawa to make changes regarding water. She hopes the subject will finally become an election issue during the next campaign.