So it's out. The long-awaited draft of a plan to implement the so-called "Annex 2001" -- a name guaranteed to glaze the public's eyes if ever there was one -- is now public. You have 90 days to comment. The plan is supposed to build defenses against the export of Great Lakes water outside the physical boundaries of the Great Lakes Basin.
The headline of a news release issued by environmental groups, who have devoted countless hours to trying to better the plan: "Governors and Premiers Move to Protect Basin from Unwise Water Withdrawals."
But do they? Or do they only move to protect the Great Lakes Basin from withdrawals that don't benefit multinational water bottling companies like Nestle (whose Ice Mountain label taps Michigan's water)?
Nestle's skillful advocates have convinced some environmentalists that water bottling is not the issue. "Resource impact" is. But that erases the distinction that should exist between uses of water to help manufacture a product (cars or crops) and the sale of water itself, in bottles, to faraway places.
It does not appear at first glance that the Annex deals with the critical issue of water as a product -- water privatization. And unless it does, the Great Lakes are up for sale, as are the groundwaters and rivers that feed them.
More on this soon. Meantime, environmentalists have established this helpful site for background:
http://www.speakongreatlakes.org/
Posted by Dave at July 19, 2004 11:04 PM