On The Threshold Of A Global Water Crisis

Blue Planet Project

Maude Barlow’s speech to the Water Rights conference in Mexico City

Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians, founder of the Blue Planet Project, and co-author of the international best-selling book Blue Gold, The Fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World’s Water.

We are living in a period of history when the common heritage of humanity and the earth is under systemic siege. Under the current model of globalization, everything is for sale. Areas once considered our common heritage are being commodified, commercialized and privatized at an alarming rate. The assault on, and defence of, the commons is one of the great ideological and social struggles of our times.

Nothing dramatizes the crisis of the commons more clearly than freshwater. Water is a sacred component of the commons; it belongs to our common humanity, the earth and all living species. It is, therefore, a fundamental human right and a public good that must be protected by governments and communities, not a human need to be supplied by the market on the basis of wealth.

Today, we are on the threshold of a global water crisis. Right now, approximately one third of the world’s population is suffering from water scarcity. Every eight seconds, somewhere in the world, a child dies of water-borne disease. If current trends continue, two thirds of the people on the planet will not have adequate access to clean water by the year 2025. As we massively pollute the world’s surface waters, we are mining groundwater far faster than nature can replenish it. The twin realities of growing freshwater shortages, combined with deeply inequitable access, pose the greatest ecological and human rights threats of our time.

A Real-Life, Everyday Hero

Doctors Without Borders

Gramicci loves to dress people who inspire us. Dr. Thomas Perry, of Redding, California, is an inspiration to many people (And happens to be the father of one of our great Gramicci ambassadors. —Sarah Mark). He is an OB/GYN doctor who spends 3-4 weeks a year donating his time to work at a hospital in Gabon, Africa. On his most recent trip in, he got great use out of some of our key Quick Dry items: the Kick It Zip Off Pant & the Game Fisher Shirt. We thought we’d ask him more about his travels to Africa and share with you more about his experiences.

How long have you been a doctor? Since 1976.

What made you specialize in OB/GYN? I really enjoy the surgical aspect, but mostly I enjoy bringing new life into the world and connecting with patients and their families in such a special time in their lives.

What is the name of the hospital and the town it is located in? The hospital is called Bongolo Christian Hospital and is located in Lebamba, Gabon, in eastern equatorial Africa.

Can you tell us more about the hospital in Gabon & how you got involved with that particular hospital? In 1991, I started corresponding with Dr. David Thompson, a general surgeon who has been living in Gabon since 1977. What first started as a small medical clinic is now a major hospital with over a hundred beds. The hospital also serves as a residency training hospital for African physicians. Dr. Thompson is a true visionary and I really connect with the vision for the hospital being a training center for African doctors. It encourages doctors to go back to their own countries to practice medicine, instead of moving to a place like Europe or America to practice medicine. The need in Africa is so great. It is estimated that there is one million people per every trained surgeon in Africa!

This hospital is part of a network of hospitals called the Pan African Academy Surgeons, which focuses on training physicians and encouraging them to practice in their own country or other countries in Africa. The other hospitals that are also a part of this network are in Camaroon, Ethiopia, Kenya & Guinea. These hospitals focus on inviting highly qualified surgeons from other countries to teach the African doctors the most current surgical techniques. Like myself, most doctors that are invited end up coming repeated times and also help to bring much needed medical supplies.

Many surgeons trained in these hospitals end up becoming a director of a hospital in their own countries, or also end up being a Minister of Health. When these doctors begin to get involved in politics in their own country, then that is where they are able to implement systems for change to help the overall country’s population.

The Bongolo Hospital serves about 250,000 people — mainly the native people living in the remote jungles and people considered the outcasts with tuberculosis, AIDS, etc.

Pure Water For The World

Pure Water For The World

25 million people die each year from contaminated water. That’s the entire population of Canada.

Take a moment and imagine. Imagine waking up each morning with no water to brush your teeth, wash your face or bathe. No water for coffee. No water to quench your thirst. 1.2 billion people (one in six) face this reality every morning.

Now imagine a life without toilets, no latrines, and no sanitation. For 2.5 billion people (one in three), it’s a way of life. Every 15 seconds, a child dies in our world from the effects of poor water quality. It defies comprehension, doesn’t it?

Imagine that every day about 6,000 children (the equivalent of 18 fully loaded jumbo jets) die from diseases associated with the lack of safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene. Two million people die each year from water related diseases, which account for 80% of all illnesses in the developing world. On any given day, half the population in the developing world is sick from just drinking water – bad water.

Start Somewhere - The First Step Matters Big Time!

How does a person begin to help when there are so many humanitarian and environmental emergencies in the world. Gramicci founded START SOMEWHERE™ as an internet portal people can come to and connect with often underexposed, life changing causes and organizations. At START SOMEWHERE™ our purpose is to help you find that cause or change making initiative that resonates most with you. What matters most is that we just start somewhere and collectively millions taking that first step will bring much needed change.