The town council of Bridgewater, Nova Scotia has unanimously passed resolutions recognizing water as a human right and promoting publicly financed, owned and operated water and wastewater services.
South Shore Now
reports, "Council agreed that 'access to clean water is a fundamental human right' and also agreed to call on the federal and provincial governments to 'enshrine water as a human right in federal and provincial law' and ask that Ottawa 'support the recognition of water as a human right in international law'." Presumably that will include communication with the local Member of Parliament, Conservative Gerald Keddy (currently the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade Ed Fast).
The town also resolved to "oppose privatization in any form of water and wastewater treatment services, including through P3s [public private partnerships] retaining these services in the public domain." This is an important municipal statement as the Harper government increasingly requires any federal funding for municipal water and wastewater infrastructure to be tied to the P3 privatization model.
Unfortunately, according to the article, the town did not consider a ban on the sale of bottled water in public facilities and at municipal events, because "the consensus of council was that there wasn't an appetite for that idea, the mayor suggested." The article also notes, "Mayor David Walker (has) previously suggested alternatives to the bottled water prohibition, such as promotion of municipal water and use of refillable drinking water containers."
An earlier article
noted, "Blue Communities representatives spoke to council in November. 'The time is right. We need to protect public access, resist privatization, to understand water as a commons and set a standard for Atlantic Canada', John Wright, one of the project spokespersons, told town council at the time."
While Bridgewater stopped short of becoming the first blue community in Atlantic Canada, we are very pleased that its town council has passed two important water justice resolutions and we look forward to the bottled water resolution being passed in the near future.
The 'Make Bridgewater a Blue Community' Facebook page can be found
here.
