What's in a Word? Reconstructing Water Discourse

Does language shape our relationship with water, or does our relationship with water influence our language?

A risky topic, that typically throws people off guard (discourse? talking about how we talk?), resulted in an intimate but passionate group of people gathering at the Waterlution Toronto Hub to de-construct the language we use around water.

Collective response of guests about what they would like to see change in the language we use around water

As we challenged our guests to not use the word "water" itself in their discussion, I will do the same from hereon and use some of the words that emerged instead.

Some interesting insights were shared from a branding perspective, on segmenting and understanding our audiences, thanks to the exercise facilitated by brand strategist and corporate leadership development coach Mary Jane Braide.

What we wanted less of, and more of in our discourse around water

Who are the audiences that matter?

How can we segment and understand them?

What value proposition would resonate most with them?

Contributions from science fiction author Karen Lefave took us on a journey of what kind of language will be used in the future after we have destroyed our earth's lifeblood (triggered a lot of goosebumps).

We all participated in an exercise based on the Appreciative Inquiry Process.

Appreciative Inquiry focuses on taking the best from what 'currently is' and overlaying it on what we think 'ought to be'. The process entails 4 elements:  
Discover
Dream
Design
Deliver 

To end our evening, we all contributed to a "commons" exercise with Paul Baines, providing prompt questions that he can use on his bike tour journey around the Great Lakes. He will be collecting stories from people he encounters on their awareness of our precious blue resource's value and their future vision of the Great Lakes. You can find us on The Great Lakes Commons Map.

Thanks to everyone who joined us and who shared their valuable ideas- to begin the process of change, we need to take a step back-  de-construct - and then consciously reconstruct our discourse around what is the beating heart, the blood, veins and tears of the earth.

Thank you James Watson from SPRiNG for co-hosting. 

Photo Credits: Nigel R

Feel free to continue the conversation below.

CSR for the Bluer Good

"Are we moving fast enough towards a sustainable society?"

Inspired by the Art of Hosting Water Dialogues workshop I recently attended, I was compelled to harvest the outcomes from our CSR for the Bluer Good (April 30) Waterlution Toronto Hub gathering at Patagonia- through this visual blog.

Although we scratched at the surface of CSR and Water, some groups delved more deeply into systems-thinking. Covering the topic comprehensively in 2 hrs is a challenge, but together we opened up the space to start the idea-sharing and conversation exchange between industry, non-profit, academics and the interested public ... 

Highlight of common ideas that surfaced:

• A need for democratic principles in private sector, more transparency, and cooperation from top to bottom both within companies and between government, industry and public.
• A need for a political climate conducive for environmental priorities and a push for greater regulation.
• Liability on banks as largest funders to require CSR standards from private loan-seekers- a deep level of accountability.
• More effective stakeholder engagement.
• Triple bottom line- GPI (Genuine Progress Indicators)
• Green wash or are we moving a little more beyond that? Yet the economical factors are still a priority. 
• How do we make CSR part of our company’s mandate and not just a marketing tool? 
• Water Disclosure Project is a positive step/ initiative for connecting water to CSR.
• B-Corp certification provides a way for companies to incorporate CSR into every facet of their operation.  here is a link: http://www.bcorporation.net/ 

Enjoy the visual gallery!

 

 Thanks for joining our Low-Tech Social Network!

   

The 3 images below are the on-site harvesting from our awesome Visual Facilitator Patricia Kambitsch 

1) Who are we as stakeholders? 

2) What has been done well so far?

 

3) What do we want more of? 

Moving CSR to a deeper level of accountability... An improved political climate...

Below are outcomes from participants' group discussions:

An interesting representation of "Map yourself as a stakeholder" activity.

...horizontal axis is about the level of Professional engagement... vertical axis measures the level at which water factors in our consciousness at the Personal level. Shout out to the group who designed this!

Visual representations of a collective agenda for action that can be taken from our stakeholder stance to make the connection stronger between CSR and water...

We are the $ holders- we can vote with our $, we can choose where to invest it... investing in Water Police isn't a shabby idea!

Education at the centre of change, supplemented by other necessary measures: better buying practices, better policies, better reporting on activities of corporations, more sustainable farming practices, involvement of religious institutions in the discussion, involvement of art...

 Appeal to the heart and the mind. Look after it now vs. 50 years from now.

 Spread the word about our discussions... Be critical...be more politically active...

... Take a water walk, especially if you are CEO.

Thank you to everyone who participated!

You have contributed your valuable insights to our economy of generosity and ecology of knowledge. Now let's keep the conversation going...

Art of hosting Water Dialogues

In my recent post at Waterlution as Hub Manager for Toronto & Southern Ontario, I have been involved with quite some interesting work. Building a Toronto Hub of water enthusiasts coming together on a regular basis to discuss water-related themes with a capacity-building backdrop has been a thrilling experience! Apologies for a hiatus on this blog.

The following event is an interesting opportunity that has come up through Waterlution- I highly recommend participating!

The Art of Hosting Water Dialogues 

 We are offering world-class facilitation training to passionate 

Canadian water leaders!

April 13-15, BC 

April 16-18, AB 

April 20-22, ON

Are you interested in hosting meaningful dialogue on water issues? Apply now for one of these three cross-Canada workshops! 

Goal: To develop strong water leaders with the capacity to host and facilitate deep and meaningful conversations between diverse stakeholders.

About: These two-and-a half-day intimate workshops will be hosted by Tatiana Glad (co-founder of Waterlution, principal of Engage! InterAct and founder of The Hub Amsterdam) and Chris Corrigan (co-founder of Harvest Moon Consultants and one of Canada’s most reputed facilitators). Karen Kun, Waterlution Co-Founder, will join participants at the Ontario workshop. Drawing on The Art of Hosting - a global community of practitioners and a practice in understanding the patterns of community-building beneath methodologies - we will discover and learn the art of the 'host' and how to host the conversations that matter for the health of our water. 

The Art of Hosting Water Dialogues Workshop Series:

1. British Columbia (Bowen Island): Friday April 13 - Sunday April 15, 2012
2. Alberta (Canmore): Monday April 16 - Wednesday April 18, 2012
3. Ontario (Stouffville): Friday April 20 - Sunday April 22, 2012

Application deadline: January 23, 2012 at www.waterlution.org/aohwd

Cost of workshop: $300 (includes tax)*

*Cost includes training, workbook, accommodation and food.

A valuable professional development experience that you do not want to miss! Check out all the details.

What the frack is going on?

Like most people, I initially had no idea what fracking was all about. It is an intriguing word. Yet for someone interested in water research I needed to look into it further. Here's what you and I may not have known about fracking...

Hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a fracking) is a process of natural gas extraction used in deep natural gas well drilling. Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well.

A form of fracking- Horizontal fracking-  uses a mixture of 596 chemicals and millions of gallons of water per frack. This water then becomes contaminated and must be cleaned and disposed of.

To clean this water, evaporators evaporate off VOCs (Volatile organic compounds) and condensate tanks steam off VOCs, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The wastewater is then trucked to water treatment facilities.
As the VOCs are evaporated and come into contact with diesel exhaust from trucks and generators at the well site, ground level ozone is produced. Ozone plumes can travel up to 250 miles.*

Therefore this process is associated with environmental and human health concerns, primarily through the contamination of ground water, risks to air quality, the migration of gases and hydraulic fracturing chemicals to the surface, and the potential mishandling of waste.** A 2010 EPA study discovered contaminants in drinking water including: arsenic, copper, vanadium, and adamantanes adjacent to drilling operations.

In Canada, concerns about fracking began in late July 2011, when the Government of British Columbia gave Talisman Energy a long-term water licence to draw water from the BC Hydro-owned Williston Lake reservoir, for a twenty year term. Fracking has also received criticism, in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The practice has been temporarily suspended, in Quebec, pending an environmental review. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has also expressed concern.***

There have also been cases made for explosive gases entering private potable water wells, causing "flammable water". An Alberta resident has filed a lawsuit on this matter due to the flammable nature of her water, especially as natural gas drilling plants are located near her home. To learn more about this story you can visit the CBC report and video.

We need energy, but we also need safe and clean water and air. Which of the two deserves priority?

------

* The movie Gasland.

** "Chemicals Used in Hydraulic Fracturing". Democrats Committee on Energy and Commerce. 18 April 2011. Retrieved 29 April 2011.

*** "Northern B.C. fracking licence concerns critics". CBC.ca. Retrieved 2011-07-30.

Melancthon Quarry or Melancholy: Threats to Canadian Water and Farmland

In recent news regarding threats to water in Canada, I have been following the Melancthon quarry- an enormous open pit mine proposed in Melancthon township on Highway 124 just north of Shelburne, north of Orangeville. This would be the largest quarry in Ontario and the second largest in North America. Today, I received an alert from Avaaz.org warning that this mining project could poison a million people's drinking water and the headwaters for five major rivers, would create an open pit deeper than Niagara Falls and decimate thousands of acres of healthy farmland.

Highland Companies had posed as a potato farming company for past years and bought acres of land from local farmers. It was recently revealed that it is backed by a $14 billion hedge fund out of Boston called Baupost Group. It was also announced that the plot of farmland would be converted into a limestone quarry (2300 acre pit), so deep it would interfere with the ground water system in the region. Furthermore, the quarry would require over seven thousand trucks to transport limestone each day, increasing carbon emissions and requiring new roads to handle the exploding traffic, further destroying the natural habitat of many species of animals. It is also in the middle of farmland that Canada depends on for food production. But, in order to start digging, Highland must win approval from Minister of Natural Resources Linda Jeffrey. 




Jeffrey is taking 4 more days to consider public opinion on this quarry before making her decision. Avaaz.org is encouraging the interested public to sign a petition that can deliver a wave of opposition to the plan. The petition can be signed here: http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_quarry/?vl 

Ralph and Mary Lynne Armstrong on their farm near the proposed quarry. “Where’s the good food going to come from if you don’t have land to grow it on?” says Ralph, a cattle and pig farmer. (Sept. 24, 2009) 

ANDREW WALLACE/TORONTO STAR

Residents and environmental activists are working hard to oppose the quarry's license. Ontario's Liberal government faces a tough re-election fight in October and Liberal Minister Linda Jeffrey is concerned about public opinion in these key months before votes are cast. A national call will put pressure on Jeffrey and her party to stand up for Canada's environment, its farmers and the fresh water many Canadians depend on for survival. 




This information was provided by Emma, Ricken, Iain, Pascal and the rest of the Avaaz team. 




MORE INFORMATION 





• Council of Canadians report on the mega-quarry
http://www.canadians.org/index2.html


• Limestone quarry threatens prime farm land (Toronto Star)
http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/734969--limestone-quarry-threatens-prime-farm-land


• Environment ministry blasts mega-quarry proposal (Toronto Star)
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1017849--environment-ministry-blasts-mega-quarry-proposal 


• The call for open submissions to the Ministry of Natural Resources
http://www.ebr.gov.on.ca/ERS-WEB-External/displaynoticecontent.do?noticeId=MTEyNTY2&statusId=MTY4ODI5&language=en 

• Chong calls for federal review of quarry proposal (Guelph Mercury)
http://www.guelphmercury.com/news/local/article/549053--chong-calls-for-federal-review-of-quarry-proposal 



Avaaz.org is a 9-million-person global campaign network that works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 13 countries on 4 continents and operates in 14 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here.

The 2nd Annual Canadian Water Summit- Are We Heading in the Right Direction?

I had the opportunity on June 14, 2011, to attend the 2nd Annual Canadian Water Summit at the International Centre as a delegate with Waterlution.

The Summit was a great forum and networking opportunity to get the conversation going among involved and critical multi-stakeholders on issues of the future of water quality and quantity, as well as governance in Canada. It was attended by business professionals and investors, water industry representatives, building and municipal stakeholders as well as government officials, water industry regulators, NGOs, academics and community representatives. As the snippet images from the Summit's site display, questions of significant importance were placed on the agenda for discussion. 

Setting aside the magnitude and relevance of these questions, the overall direction of the conversation carried solid undertones of market-driven solutions. I suppose the popular mindset is "if you can't change the system you need to work with it". I am still not so convinced that fighting shy of putting the critical question of "what is wrong with the system that led us to where we are today?" at the heart of these discussions - simply because "we've exhausted the conversation", "it's a thing of the past", "only leftists/anti-capitalists ask this type of questions"  or because "it unleashes a whole new can of worms and becomes too complex to tackle"- can lead us to sustainable sustainability (if I may). 

With the tagline "let's work together to drive real progress in our world", IBM proposed that technology is the way to go. The technologies presented by their Smarter City/Smarter Planet program were certainly ingenious and a progressive contribution to tackling emerging water management problems (i.e advanced weather forecast systems determining amounts of rain and issuing signals to cities to prepare in advance so they avoid sewerage system floods; an iphone app that allows users to report water leaks; households subscribing to receive instant messages from utilities about their water consumption levels). Presenter Michael Sullivan explained that 45% of water is lost due to leaks in an aging water infrastructure around the world, and some of the technologies they have devised can deal with that. Great advancements indeed! However, when a participant posed the question of why IBM's current and prospective deals are concentrated in Europe and North America and whether there is potential to share this technology with  developing countries dealing with urgent water crises (as in Sub-Saharan Africa) who may not be able to afford it, the unsatisfying response was "We are a business, and we run as a business". This begs the question then: in WHOSE world are we driving "real" progress?

Other recurrent approaches seemed to be international collaboration and alliances to regulate industries and companies on a voluntary basis (i.e Water Disclosure Project- part of Carbon Disclosure Project; Blue Economy Initiative, Aqueduct, Global Water Roundtable etc.).  Again, these initiatives are a great start, but more than anything they are an indication for a need for REGULATION. Their pitfall in my opinion, is that a voluntary approach and "incentives" are insufficient to exert enough pressure on companies to acknowledge their footprint and contribution to escalating the water crisis (i.e mining companies in developing communities) and although such measures may provoke some action, it is questionable to what extent this action will be bold, organic and of magnitude, setting the bar high for regulatory progress and for preventing future recourse for loss in profit (as in the case of Metalclad among many other examples).
On the grassroots level, municipality and provincial representatives shared their endless plight to address local water management and its dynamic challenges. It was shocking to learn that despite Ontario being a leader in innovative technology in the water sector - currently working on a technology transfer program with other countries- an estimate of only 1% of this technology is actually used nationally. Minister of Research and Innovation, Glen Murray, brought this to our attention, and he ended with quite a striking and reverberating comment: "if you don't understand that the economy is a subset of the environment, then you just don't get it!" Seldom do we make this link, and often do we think that the environment is a subset of the economy. This may be a core problem in our perception; and perception, unfortunately, is reality.

A final note on the event and one that is most humanizing in my opinion, is a contrasting perspective presented by Native environmentalist of Turtle Clan Mohawk, Danny Beaton, who reminded everyone that what is of urgency is our acknowledgment as a human race that we are stewards of this earth and that water is the sacred blood of mother earth. We have for long abused our relationship with mother earth and are today paying the price for it. We need to relearn to appreciate the sun, the earth, water, life. Perhaps a return to the basics is really all it takes. Technology is a solution, but with every invention we invent its problems. Perhaps the question of "what is wrong with the system?" is not so complex afterall. It is easy. The system is not sustainable. Hypercapitalism is not sustainable. How can we speak of sustainability in an unsustainable system? Minor or major tweaks and fiscal resurgence of management solutions and regulation does not lead to sustainability. It simply delays the problem, it does not solve it. A return to the basics is simple- I'll let your imagination interpret the possibilities of this concept...

Connecting the dots ...

I would like to share some brief reflections on my recent experience in a graduate summer school at York University IPEESS (International Political Economy and Ecology Summer School 2011), followed by a conference and SSHRC funded workshop on the future of global governance. The title for the course was New Constitutionalism and Global Political Economy. 

"What we need is more 'demos-prudence' instead of jurisprudence"- Upendra Baxi 

Richard Falk- Left

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to interact with a roster of leading lawyers and political economists and theorists, most notably Stephen Gill, Richard Falk, Upendra Baxi, Claire Cutler, Isabella Bakker, Ran Hirschl, Saskia Sassen, Janine Brodie and a few others regarding the developments in the recent past of our global political economy (particularly since the 80's) which have been labeled as a form of new constitutionalism; one which "locks-in" through legal (politico-juridical) mechanisms, specific frameworks and regulations that insulate neoliberal capitalism from democratic power. A particular session was on the topic of "enclosure of the commons",  during which water was a field of contestation. The interesting dialectic between water as a fundamental human right and the ongoing process of its commodification, which I have discussed in earlier blogs, and the ensuing discussions revealed the key to a missing link in my analysis for my future research project. 

The process of commodification of water (and the environment- i.e the creation of "weather derivatives" to commodify the risks involved with climate change)  is not only adopted as a market mechanism for greater capital accumulation, but in fact has also been constitutionalised, in a sense, through international, national and otherwise neo-forms of agreements and binding treaties, very much in tandem with neoliberal trade and investment frameworks. This has been severely affecting ecological practices and social reproduction, and has in fact reshaped our normative understandings of water. 


It is now my goal to further research what elements of new constitutionalism have been adopted (in other words the trends) in various geographical and social spaces and points of contact where neoliberal reforms in water policies have been employed and in instances met resistance. I believe the locations of resistance will unveil the cause of contestation. The "what" that is being contested, I speculate will be evidence of a similar pattern through which neoliberal capitalism has further infiltrated into areas of the environment and basic human needs (ie water) and is deeply infringing on and threatening local livelihoods. I hope as my research unfolds, I will better connect the dots...

On this note, "Abuela Grillo" is a very symbolic and short clip- shared with me by a friend from Brazil- on the water wars in Bolivia. It really encompasses the dialectical relationship between locals as stewards of water resources, their lack of appreciation of this resource at a certain point, and the process of exploitation by capitalism- and tells the story through the personification of water by the wonderful character of Abuela Grillo.