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By Wendy Elliott   It looks like Wolfville activist Janet Eaton was wise to warn
Wolfville town council recently about a possible ramification of the
Canada-Europe Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). Eaton
believes municipalities should be concerned about how CETA might impact
our water supply. I think we all should be.

According to Geoffrey Lean writing in the Telegraph, Britain is
facing the biggest water crisis since 1976. The south of England is
looking at its third dry winter in a row and the public could soon
face restrictions.

Last week, the Guardian suggested half of all households in Britain
could face water restrictions, unless exceptionally heavy and
prolonged rain falls by April. Caroline Spelman, the UK environment
secretary, is going to hold a crisis meeting of companies, wildlife
groups and other river users this week.

Our country was exceedingly fortunate when God was handing out global
water resources.

We are close to the top of the list of water-rich nations, just
behind Brazil, Russia and China.

Good thing because we also consume a lot of water: approximately 350
litres of freshwater a day per capita.

In fact, our nation is second only to the Americans as the most
profligate wasters of water on the planet. The average global citizen

needs only 20 and 40 litres of water a day for drinking and
sanitation. Some 1.1 billion people suffer from a chronic lack of
water.

It must be remembered that 97.5 per cent of water is salty and most
of what remains is locked in polar ice caps. Only the bit left over
is considered drinkable. No wonder some believe that water will be
the oil of the 21st century.

Water has already caused wars between nations, particularly in the
Middle East where five per cent of the world's population lives in
territory with just one per cent of the earth's freshwater resources.

Canada is going to be a major player in the water stakes of the
future.

Will the secretive CETA deal result in us losing our hold on a
bountiful supply of water? One of the reasons for worry is a federal
natural resources minister who has repeatedly refused to answer whether he
believes in global warming. Joe Oliver seems to have a weird view of
environmentalists.

"There are some radicals who do oppose all hydrocarbon devel­opment,"

Oliver said not long ago. "There are some who think that one one­
thousandth of one per cent addi­tion to global warming will somehow
destroy the planet. These are people who are not backed by science."

Perhaps Oliver is unaware of the eight Nobel laureates who have
spoken out about the oil from Canadian tar sands threatening the
health of the planet.

Desmond Tutu has written, "oil from the tar sands of Alberta is the
dirtiest in the world".

Critics in Britain also say the oil sands extraction process is
extremely damaging to Canada's environment, due in part to its water-
intensive nature. Our government would have us be comforted by the
announcement of a new monitoring system on the impact of tar sands' on the
environment.

This Thursday, according to Reuters, European Union officials are
expected to vote on a draft law that would label fuel from Alberta as
more polluting than other forms of oil. The Conservatives might label
such a move unfair discrimination, but isn't it the truth?

I'm with NDP environment critic and Halifax MP Megan Leslie, who
frequently clashes in the House of Com­mons with Oliver and
Environment Minister Peter Kent.
"We don't have anybody who's looking out for the best interests of
environment," she has said. "Our minister of the envi­ronment is
going around lobby­ing about pipelines, for example. That's not what I
imagine the minister of environment should be doing."

Will Kent and Oliver be selling our fresh water to the highest bidder
next?

February 19 2012

http://www.kingscountynews.ca/Opinion/Columns/2012-02-19/article-
2899577/WENDY-ELLIOTT%3A-Who-will-speak-up-for-Canadas-water/1