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Canada urged not to share water with United States

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 18, 2008 at 8:40 am

From the Edmonton Journal:

Canada must resist pressure to sell or share its water with the United States if it wants to avoid an environmental catastrophe, said environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Water is going to become the oil of the 21st century,” said Kennedy, in Banff today to help the Waterkeeper Alliance raise funds to fight water pollution. “Canada is going to find tremendous pressure from the U.S. to sell or share water as a commodity. But sharing water would lead to an environmental catastrophe in Canada.”

lake-louise-by-bithead.jpgKennedy is hosting the Fairmont Banff Springs and Sunshine Village Celebrity Sports Invitational, which last year raised more than $1 million for Waterkeepers. Some of the stars supporting the event include Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon and partner Tim Robbins, Christie Brinkley, Daryl Hannah, Kelsey Grammer, Jason Priestly and Justin Trudeau.

“The U.S. southwest is already experiencing a water crisis, with lots of people moving there and development increasing exponentially,” said Kennedy. “They have already run out of water. If you talk to government officials, everybody says they are looking for Canada to bail them out.”

Water from the Colorado River is being routed for development to such places as Las Vegas and Los Angeles. “This is in the short-term interest of a few developers,” said Kennedy, who has a master’s degree in environmental law. “It’s not a sustainable practice. The Colorado now dies in the Sonoran Desert. It was once a river that fed a great estuary full of fish and migratory birds.”

Kennedy, the nephew of the late U.S. president John F. Kennedy and son of the late senator Robert F. Kennedy, is one of 11 children whose childhood was filled with outdoor adventures. He remembers making a trip down the Colorado River with his father in 1964. “Some of the native fish there have disappeared from the planet,” he said. “Canada must give kids in future the chance to enjoy the good health this generation has had,” he said.

To read the full text of this story from the Edmonton Journal, click here.

Picture of Lake Louise by flickr photographer bithead. Click on the picture to visit the flickr website, where you can spend hours looking at other people’s photos. No registration required!

January 18, 2008 · Filed Under International Water Issues

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