Maude Barlow’s Blue Covenant calls on world leaders to enact a covenant for water conservation, water justice, and water democracy.  Here’s how you can get involved.

Bust the Bottle

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Consumers are wasting billions of dollars a year on billions of gallons of bottled water in large part because advertising spin has led them to believe that water in a bottle is safer or better than tap water even though as much as 40 percent of bottled water came from the tap in the first place.

No government agency is testing bottled water — less than a full time person at the Food & Drug Administration is devoted to seeing the bottled water industry. Bottled water can cost consumers 1000 times more than tap water and funnels the profits from the sale of water, a public resource, to private companies.

Truth is, tap water generally is just as safe, clean, and healthful as bottled water, and in many cases more so. In fact, the federal government requires far more rigorous and frequent safety testing and monitoring of municipal drinking water.

What you can do:

Encourage your university campus, city government, or community group to break the bottled water habit. Sign the Take Back the Tap pledge and get involved or contact Food & Water Watch at 202-683-2500, water@fwwatch.org

Protect Our Water Sources

Aging and inadequate U.S. water pipes and treatment plants result in an astounding 1.26 trillion gallons of untreated water, filth, chemicals and bacteria ending up in our rivers and other water bodies every year, threatening the environment and the public’s health.

The EPA recently estimated that the United States needs $202.5 billion to do the minimum level of maintenance for the infrastructure that supports our homes and businesses and keeps our water safe. Unfortunately, the federal government is providing less support for clean water than ever.

 In 1978, 78 percent of all clean water spending came from the federal government. Today, it is contributing only three percent. The growing funding gap is taking a serious toll on states, many of which face sizable and growing backlogs of clean water projects.

Water is a public trust. It is time for a water trust fund, a long-term solution to provide all U.S. communities safe and affordable water for the future — not just those that can afford sharp rate increases.

What you can do:

Tell your members of Congress to make clean water a priority by creating a trust fund by clicking here if you are an individual and here for an organization.

Support Public Water

In the United States, 86 percent of people get their household drinking water from a public utility and 98% get wastewater services from a public utility. But public utilities are struggling financially to meet federal clean water standards and to maintain and modernize water systems.  Water corporations, members of Congress and some local politicians are promoting private companies as the answer.

Communities that have experimented with privatization have not found that it solves their water woes. They generally ex-perience higher rates, water quality problems, poorer customer service, and a host of other problems.

What you can do:

If your utility is publicly owned, ask if privatization is being considered. Get involved in local water decisions and support efforts to protect public water and oppose privatization. Food & Water Watch can help provide information on fighting privatization — email water@fwwatch.org. Sign up for Food & Water Watch action alerts here.

Oppose Tech Quick–Fixes: Desalination

Ocean desalination –– a costly and energy intensive process that converts seawater into drinking water –– is being hailed as the solution to water supply problems.  Proponents of desalination claim that this technology will create a reliable, long–term water supply, while decreasing pressure on other over–drawn water sources. But ocean desalination provides a new opportunity for private corporations to own and sell water and has the potential to create more problems than it solves.

Ocean water desalination can be greater than ten times more energy intensive than other op-tions and can be three or more times expensive than traditional water supplies. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, water intake structures on power plants, which are very similar to planned desalination intakes, kill at least 3.4 billion fish and other marine organisms annually. A number of public health experts have expressed concern that new contaminants could end up in our drinking water. Contaminants such as boron, algal toxins (for example, red tide) and endocrine disrupters are found in ocean water and are concentrated through the desalination process.

What you can do:

Support water for conservation, not desalination. For example, Pacific Institute report found that California can meet its water needs for the next 30 years by implementing off-the-shelf, cost-effective urban water conservation. Take action to oppose federal subsidies for water extraction technologies like desalination here.