Controlling the flow

>> How a Montreal-based international council is plotting the water management of the future

by DOMINIQUE RITTER

How long was your shower this morning? Did you notice how much water flowed down the drain?

Or, more importantly, does it even matter?

In Canada we have more water per capita than any other country in world, and you could bet a few cases of Molson Ex on the certainty that our children and our children's children will still enjoy the privilege of soaking in a bathtub of lovely fresh water 'til their toes get pruney.

But although Canadians have the luxury of hooking up sprinklers, erecting water slides and letting the tap run while we brush our teeth, our apparent unwavering confidence in the water supply is downright dumb. Even here, in the land of infinite hydro, farmers have faced drought, water levels have fallen and limitations have been placed on our water consumption.

Although it is a relatively new problem, the scarcity of water is today considered one of the greatest challenges to humanity, and the statistics on global water shortage are worrisome, to say the least. It is estimated that 1.2 billion people around the world lack access to clean drinking water, while 2.9 billion do not have access to proper sanitation facilities. Projections suggest that, by the year 2050, two thirds of the world's population will face moderate to severe water scarcity.

Will Canadian spring water and ice caps become the envy of thirsty people around the world? Will we be forced to ban hockey rink ice-making and beer brewing in our attempt to conserve precious H₂O?

The name of the game is global crisis aversion, and the name of the team assembled with this mandate is the Montreal-based World Water Council (WWC). Created by the United Nations to formulate a report on how the world's water ought to be managed, the WWC is in effect charged with the task formulating a blueprint to save the world.

Montreal's international offices

Few Montrealers are aware of the existence of the WWC, let alone that their city happens to host the WWC's western hemispheric offices. But not only has the WWC set up shop in Old Montreal, the tab for the office and furnishings is being picked up by Montreal International, a branch of the city of Montreal. While Montreal International is mandated to attract businesses and organizations that help boost the city's international prestige, the presence of the WWC has attracted little in the way of local attention.

Which seems strange, because the whole idea behind the WWC is that they are supposed to work with "stakeholders" (i.e. the people who need water to live--you and me) and develop a proposal to better manage the world's water until 2025.

The WWC is a water policy think-tank charged with creating a "World Water Vision," an inventory of the global water management strategies required to guarantee the interests of everyone involved. Based on extensive consultations with all the stakeholders of the world--all of which will be integrated into a final document--the Vision report is to be presented at a bigwig international water conference in The Hague next March (the second World Water Forum), at which point it is hoped that the governments of the world will adopt its principles and implement them. And presto, a world water policy: preservation of the littlest stream, widest ocean and shower water pressure.

Canada vs the world

And speaking of pressure, there has been a certain amount of it exerted on the Canadian federal government in recent years to come up with a national water policy, which it sorely lacks. Many observers feel that our great puddles will be diverted to the U.S., where they will water the Napa valley and fill Arizona swimming pools. The Great Wet North is in fact already a target for exploitation by our neighbour to the south under the shield of free trade and investment; court battles over water exportation are currently ongoing.

"There are some issues that need to have some international rules," William Cosgrove, director of the WWC's Vision Management Unit, told the Mirror. "There is an issue of sovereignty over water, but there aren't any rules for it yet."

Although the WWC appears to have adopted a very by-the-people-for-the-people approach to creating its report, many people feel there is a strong contingent within the WWC that will not represent the little voices: the World Bank. The World Bank is a sponsor of the Council as well as a participant. Ismail Serageldin, vice-president of the World Bank, is actually the chairman of this global water endeavor.

"The World Bank has a notorious history of not consulting with the most directly involved communities," laments Eric Abitbol, a private water-management consultant who attended the WWC conference. "They tend to fund states that pursue the World Bank's development priorities without necessarily proving that all environmental, social and cultural considerations have been taken into account. And that's problematic."

When asked to defend the role of the World Bank at the WWC, Cosgrove replied: "The Bank has realized that one of the keys to development is to involve people at the community level. They're working hard to change the way they work. [The WWC] has made it an absolute point of consulting, including people right down to the village level in developing countries."

Doubts, however, remain. Says Abitbol: "[The consultative process] has to be diverse and grassrooted if this vision is really going to be a global water vision, not just an international water vision with a corporatist agenda."

Whose agenda?

So how diverse are the consultations? Two weeks ago, the WWC held consultations at McGill's MacDonald campus for its Canadian Vision and Vision for the Americas.

"About 25 NGOs from Canada and the U.S. participated in the Vision process," said Cosgrove. "The whole underpinning of the process is to reach down and get the views of the people who are affected: the stakeholders--the people who drink the water and need it for their daily lives."

About 40 people attended each series of consultations. The recruiting of participants was handled by the host of the consultations: McGill's Brace Centre for Water Resources Management.

"[The networking] was done over a really short period of time," admitted Dr. Chandra Madramootoo, the Brace Centre's director. "It started in earnest two and a half months ago, but you have to take the bull by the horns."

Madramootoo was pleased with the turnout of representatives from the federal government, the private sector, academia and NGOs. Like Cosgrove, he felt that the consultations had gone enormously well. But there were some reservations expressed by others about the lack of stakeholder diversity: "Greater efforts could have been made," said one participant, who called the process "a bit of a leap of faith." Notably, Montreal-based engineering giant SNC-Lavalin was a sponsor of the consultations.

The conclusions drawn by the Vision report are still not final, although Cosgrove indicated inclinations towards things like semi-privatization of water and the sharing of global resources--but he indicated that the WWC would not advocate water exports. And it remains to be seen whether the WWC's policies are adopted and implemented by governments around the world.

But in the interim, on the advice of water experts, you should know that drinking beer does not actually save water--unless of course you forsake the sprinkler and water the lawn personally.