- Water is a sacred gift that connects all life; - Access to
clean water is a basic human right; - The value of the Earth’s
fresh water to the common good takes priority over any possible
commercial value; - Fresh water is a shared legacy, a public
trust and a collective responsibility. Fully two-thirds of the
world’s population do not have access to sanitation and clean
water. This is not only an ecological crisis, but a crisis of
injustice and equity. In many villages, the standpipe that
provided the only ready source of potable water has been
commercialized – locked out by a meter that requires significant
payment (relative to income) to access. Villagers are forced by
poverty to either travel great distances for water, or worse, to
resort to dirty, disease-ridden sources. Those who cannot pay
are cut off, with the resultant rise in sanitation-related
diseases, such as cholera and chronic diarrhea. As Barlow
describes it, this is not merely a problem for the so-called
Third World – there is a First World i