Water On The Table - World Premiere Wednesday March 24 2010 at 10 pm ET

Wednesday March 24 2010 at 10 pm ET
repeated Sunday March 28 at 10:30 pm
60 minutes
Written, directed and produced by Liz Marshal
produced in association with TVO

Is water a human right, or a commodity to be bought and sold like gold and oil? Thats the question at the heart of this timely new documentary by filmmaker Liz Marshall. Over the course of a year in Canada and the United States, the film follows Canadian activist Maude Barlow as she campaigns against the privatization of water and tries to bring attention to how industry is polluting the water table.

As the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, and the United Nations Senior Advisor on Water from 2008 to 2009, Barlow has acquired the moniker of water warrior. With cameras close on her heels, Barlow leads a hectic schedule of speaking engagements and frontline community actions that take her from the United Nations, to the Alberta tar sands, to a protest by Aboriginal women in Simcoe County, Ontario, to stop a proposed landfill site on what has been named the purest water source in the world.

While many embrace Barlow as a leader in the global water justice movement, others regard her as an alarmist and agitator. Barlows opponents in Canada and the United States argue that water is no different from any other resource, and that the best way to protect freshwater is to privatize it. They argue that Canada is water-rich and propose that Canada make its freshwater available now and into the future, especially to the United States as it faces an imminent water crisis.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• water
• human
• right
• commodity
• gold
• oil
• documentary
• Liz
• Marshall
• Maude
• Barlow
• privatization
• Council of Canadians
• Blue
• Planet
• Project
• TVO
• TVOntario
• Ontario
• Canada

[merryprankster60]

STOP THE COMMODIFICATION OF OUR LAND, AIR AND WATER!

[Murgatroyd210]

Because of the rules, regulations and laws in place protecting our natural resources it is often very expensive for industry to produce an end product here in Canada that can compete on the world market. As a result, Canadians have already, and continue to, pay a price for the quality of water in our country. Saying that those who have clean water cannot deny it to (others) is, to me, quite wrong. In my opinion we have earned the right to deny who we give our water to.

[58maloriew]

Desalination is an expensive measure, and the salt water on our earth is also being contaminated daily with agriculture, oil and human waste. So this is a significant issue!

[Romalatti]

@BertyBloggs Marilyn Waring explains how the ecconomic system is what needs to be changed so that there is no profit in cleanup or processing and value place on what is natural and left pure.

[Romalatti]

Blessings, Maude!

[thenvironmentalist]

I support the work Maude Barlow does because it teaches all of us that water is important.

Sometimes we forget that.

People talk about fighting wars over water in the future, I bet its already happening.

[BertyBloggs]

Take a look at a model globe of the world and see how much of the surface is covered by water!!

We should know that desalination procedures can easily turn salt water into fresh water. The science is there and the market place will do it, if fresh water ever becomes scarce, it stands to reason.

The Maude Barlows and Al Gores of this world love setting up straw dogs, so they can knock them down!

Incredible!