Don't go chasing bottled water falls

It's always nice to see coverage of a campaign that is likely just starting off, and sure to get bigger among progressives and social justice activists, especially those concerned about the environment. Case in point, check out this news article from the Toronto Globe and Mail on the United Church of Canada calling for a boycott of bottled water, and issuing a declaration that they will not use bottled water at their future gatherings and meetings.

I'm sure this is likely to rile up people. The hype is that bottled water is safer, it's trendier, and tastes better. But bottled water carries quite the baggage in the developing world, as mega-giant corporations seek to privatize water and sell it for a profit - thus limiting its access to people who might really need it, and also turning something that's a critical basic need into a commodity. God forbid they ever figure out how to privatize air!

David Hellman from the United Church of Christ had this to say:

Water is seen increasingly as a saleable commodity, [being used] to make a profit, as opposed to our perspective of it being an element of life and good for all creation.

Many writers, too, including Vandana Shiva, have asserted that our next wars are going to be fought over water, just as our current wars are fought over oil. I think she's right, which might be why corporations (pepsi and their aquafina, coke and their dasani) are licking their chops to get access to own and market water.

For more information on the United Church of Canada's boycott, go to http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/ecology/water/index.asp.