Article Source: InterPress Service

Written by - Thalif Deen - August 13th, 2009

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 13 (IPS) - The growing commercialisation of water - and the widespread influence of the bottling industry worldwide - is triggering a rising demand for the legal classification of one of the basic necessities of life as a human right.

"We definitely need a covenant or [an international] treaty on the right to water so as to establish once and for all that no one on earth must be denied water because of inability to pay," says Maude Barlow, a senior adviser to the President of the U.N. General Assembly, on water issues.

Barlow, the senior U.N. adviser on water issues, said: "We are winning some of the battle against the global corporate theft of water.In my country [Canada], for instance, 53 municipalities - some of them big cities such as Vancouver and Toronto - have banned bottled water, and bottled water sales have dropped dramatically globally."

Learn more...