Council of Canadians seeks to make Great Lakes legally protected bio-region
Posted March 23, 2011, by Vittorio Hernandez, All Headline News, allheadlinenews.com
The Great Lakes comprise over 20 percent of the world’s surface freshwater and 95 percent of North America’s.
The Council of Canadians, a nongovernment organization that is pursuing social, economic and environmental justice, pushed for Ottawa to declare the Great Lakes a legally protected bio-region. The call was made by the council in observance of World Water Day through a report released Tuesday.
The protection sought by the council is based on the Public Trust Doctrine that states the Great Lakes are vital to the very existence of people, plants and animals living on or near the lakes and must be protected for the common good through generations.
In pushing for the declaration, the council warned that the Great Lakes water is overused and abused. Council of Canadians Chairwoman Maude Barlow, author of the report, said water in the Great Lakes is lost through irrigation, bottling and water trade.
The Great Lakes comprise over 20 percent of the world’s surface freshwater and 95 percent of North America’s. A 2005 study by the Great Lakes Commission disclosed that communities near the Great Lakes Basin and St. Lawrence River pump 850 billion gallons of water each day from the water bodies.
The report dispelled the belief that the Great Lakes are replenished yearly through rainfall. Barlow cited a forecast by scientists that at the rate water from the Great Lakes is tapped, the lakes could be dry in 80 years. Barlow said the prediction has a basis–the Aral Sea, because of excessive water withdrawal, was reduced to 10 percent of its former size.
Washington has proposed a $475 million fund for the Great Lakes cleanup and the Republican Party supported a $225 million fund for the lake restoration project. Ottawa allocated $8 million for the protection of the Great Lakes.
The council recommended $3.375 billion new funding spread over five years to clean up the Great Lakes and other polluted waterways in the U.S. and Canada.
