Activist Maude Barlow talks global water rights as she returns to the site of Save Our Groundwater’s fight against corporate bottling.

We tend to think of water scarcity as a problem afflicting only poor, third-world countries or drought-prone areas. But, as Canadian activist and author Maude Barlow reminds us, the planet’s dwindling water supply threatens us all.

“These struggles are going on everywhere, because we are a planet running out of clean water,” Barlow said. “It’s a very, very serious situation we’re fighting.”

In fact, she said, some researchers have predicted that, by the year 2030, demand for water will outstrip supply by 40 percent. Already, in Detroit, thousands of families have had their water cut off because they can’t pay their bills. Many rural communities across North America lack access to water sanitization services.

“Lots of people in rural communities don’t have it. Many Native Americans don’t have access to sanitation,” Barlow said.

Barlow is the national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest citizens’ organization. She has long been a leader in the global movement to have water recognized as a human right and has authored several books and reports on the issue, including 2007’s “Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Fight for the Right to Water.” She will offer a public talk on her efforts at the Community Church of Durham on Monday, Sept. 24, from 6:30 to 9 p.m.

The evening is presented by Save Our Groundwater, a local citizens’ organization that, for years, has been fighting to prevent a corporate water bottling company from tapping into the local water supply on the Seacoast. So far, they’ve succeeded, and Barlow, who last visited Save Our Groundwater several years ago, often cites their triumphant efforts during her speaking engagements around the world.

“Save Our Groundwater is just a fabulous local group that has become famous—and you can believe this or not—around the world, partly because I’ve told their story, but also because they are the little engine that could,” she said, noting the group has not given up even in the face of corporate intimidation. She paraphrased Margaret Mead: “Real change comes from a handful of citizens. It always has.”

Save Our Groundwater formed in 2001 after USA Springs launched plans for a water bottling operation on about 100 acres of land in Nottingham and Barrington. The company was seeking to withdraw more than 400,000 gallons of groundwater per day from the local aquifer. The group, along with the two towns and local residents, challenged the company in the courts at every turn.

In 2008, after many stops and starts, USA Springs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and its wetlands and building permits soon expired. The company now faces liquidation. Just last month, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manchester converted the case to Chapter 7, and the company’s assets are scheduled to be auctioned on Sept. 28.

But other corporate attempts to bottle groundwater have cropped up around New England. Nestle, the parent company of Poland Springs, has been trying for years to expand its water pumping operations across Maine.

During her visit, Barlow will discuss the global challenges water faces and “next steps” for protecting local groundwater. She’s involved in the Blue Communities Project, which encourages municipalities to recognize water as a human right.

“A Blue Community is a community that has taken a pledge to look after its water, but most specifically we ask them to declare water to be a human right,” she said. “The pledge is really that you’re going to start thinking about your water and you’re going to protect your water for the public.”

So far, nine Blue Communities have been established in Canada, but Barlow said New Hampshire could just as easily get involved. The project asks municipalities to promote publicly financed, owned and operated water and wastewater services.

“When a private corporation comes in to run a water service, they have to run it on a for-profit basis,” she said. “Prices go up and quality of service goes down.”

The project also asks municipalities to ban the sale of bottled water at public facilities and events. People who live in Blue Communities are free to have bottled water, Barlow stressed, but the municipality should not encourage it. 

The campaign for water rights scored a major victory in July 2010, when the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution recognizing the human right to clean and safe drinking water and sanitation as “essential for the full enjoyment of the right to life.”

So, what are the implications of recognizing water as a human right?

“When the United Nations declares something a human right, what it means is that governments are responsible for ensuring that right,” Barlow explained. “The governments of the United States and New Hampshire have an obligation to ensure that all Americans have access to clean, safe water and sanitation.”

But that doesn’t mean water should always be free. Barlow said she recognizes that municipal budgets are strapped in New Hampshire and across the continent. She believes water services should be covered by taxes, or, failing that, by service charges. The most important thing, she said, is to avoid privatization.

“If we’re going to have service charges, let’s be clear that they are in the public realm, not for profit, that they are subsidized by taxes by local government so that no one is denied. And I think if people cannot afford it there should be exceptions,” Barlow said. “We mustn’t get to a place where anyone is denied.”

Having a human right to clean water also means local water supplies must not be contaminated by industrial pollution.

According to Barlow, residential water consumption accounts for just 9 percent of all water use. The rest involves industrial uses like large-scale farming, hydroelectric power, hydraulic fracking, mining operations, oil extraction and so on. Many of those industries can pollute the water.

“If a fracking operation is destroying your local water source, I would argue that that is denying you your human right to water,” Barlow said. “The concept is that a right must not be interfered with, and it’s a government’s responsibility to ensure that.”

Furthermore, she added, any private industry that is going to profit from a local water supply should be required to pay for the privilege.

“Everybody owns that water. If somebody’s going to make money from that, they should be paying a license fee to the holders of that water, which are the people of New Hampshire,” Barlow said.

Instead, many large companies receive federal water subsidies. Barlow cited California, where massive farms get tax-funded subsidies for cheap, abundant water. If they cut back their water consumption, they lose their subsidies.

“We’ve got to change our thinking here. If you’re extracting water for an industry and you’re turning around and making profit from that water, I argue that you should be paying a license fee,” Barlow said. “It makes it a much more even and fair kind of water pricing system than just charging residential users.”

In a country where large corporations wield tremendous power, most American politicians would never consider enacting such a requirement, she said. But they might have to in the future. Our current water policies will have humanitarian and ecological repercussions for generations to come.

Although it may still seem foreign to most Granite Staters, lack of access to clean water is already a crisis in many other countries. We live in a world, Barlow said, where private companies use millions of gallons of water to fill mega swimming pools and luxury spas, while children in poor nations die of thirst. For now, it’s up to small, grassroots, citizens’ organizations like Save Our Groundwater to combat that trend. Barlow believes such groups will be remembered as heroes.

“In the future, children are going to be brought up realizing that water’s the most precious thing we have,” Barlow said. “There’s going to be a time when the people who fought to protect the water, to stop it from getting destroyed, will just be considered incredibly important... They’ll be written up in the history books.”

Save Our Groundwater will present “An Evening with Maude Barlow” on Monday, Sept. 24, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., at Fellowship Hall, Community Church of Durham, 17 Main St., Durham. The event is free and open to the public.