Water of Life:

Fresh Perspectives on the World’s Water Crisis

October 16, 2003

10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. At the United Nations, New York

“What is needed, along with freshwater, is fresh thinking.

We need to learn how to value water.” Kofi Annan

Honoring the International Year of Freshwater (2003) on World Environment Day, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, issued a statement that highlighted the centrality of water to human survival and sustainable development. As well as graphically picturing the plight of the vast number of people in the world who lack safe drinking water and adequate sanitation, the Secretary General further stated: "What is needed, along with fresh water, is fresh thinking. We need to learn how to value water."

This is the theme of the day’s program, a contribution to the Year of Freshwater offered by the Earth Values Caucus on October 16, 2003, when we will take a fresh look at the issues from government, UN, NGO and technical perspectives. We will consider the intrinsic value of water as part of the interdependent web of life as well as from the human perspective. Inspiring examples of new approaches and solutions to global water management crises will be presented and discussed.

Morning: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon (Sponsored by DPI, DESA and Earth Values Caucus)

Location: Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium

(UN Security Pass required)

10:00 a.m. Two short UN films about water

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon DPI/NGO Briefing:

Water for Life: Stewardship and Sustainability

Updates on the International Year of Freshwater

Moderator:

Paul Hoeffel: Chief, NGO Section, DPI

Speakers:

Marcia Brewster: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (ECOSOC):

Focal Point for the International Year of Fresh Water 2003, Senior Economic Affairs Officer

H.E. Mr. Dumisani Shadrack Kumalo: (not confirmed) Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Africa

John Todd: Award winning internationally recognized biologist and co-founder of the New Alchemy Institute, Ocean Arks International, Living Technologies Inc., and the Water Stewards Network.

Theme: Overview of the 'Stewardship' approach to water in light of freshwater crisis and current trends.

Lunchtime: 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. in UN Lobby

Public Performance by Walkabout Clearwater Chorus

Afternoon: 1:15 – 5:00 p.m.

Location: Church Center of the United Nations, 777 UN Plaza, 2^nd Floor, (1^st Ave & 44^th Street)

Water of Life: Fresh Perspectives on the World’s Water Crisis

Addressing the Challenges: Earth Values, Stewardship and Sustainable Solutions

1:15 p.m. Welcome: Eleanor Rae: Earth Values Caucus

Moderator: May East: Brazilian activist; Trustee Findhorn Foundation; Global Ecovillage Network; International Holistic University.

Ke Kumu Aupuni Iwi’ula: Kalama Foundation, Hawaii. Hawaiian blessing ceremony

Speakers:

1:30 p.m. HE Mr. Rashid Alimov: Permanent Representative of the Republic of Tajikistan.

Theme: The International Year of Freshwater

1:35 p.m. Maude Barlow: Activist, writer, policy critic; national chairperson of the Council of Canadians; co-founder of Blue Planet Project; Advisor to the Water Stewards Network.

Theme: Privatization and commodification vs. rights to water

2:00 Manuel Dengo: DESA Chief of Branch for Water, Natural Resources and Small Island Developing States

Theme: The UN Perspective

2:05 p.m. Interactive Session: Panel and Participants: Addressing The Challenges

Maude Barlow, Roberto Borrero, Manuel Dengo, Suzanne Golas, John Todd

2:50 p.m. Song with Gemma and participants: A Single Drop

3:00 – 3:15 p.m. Refreshments and Film: Water Knows the Answers

3:15 – 5:00 p.m. Moderator: Nancy Todd: Ocean arks International; Editor: Annals of Earth

Speakers:

Oren Lyons (not confirmed): Advisor to the Water Stewards Network

Theme: Indigenous perspective, planet’s right to water

Ryan Case: Co-founder and Director of Water Stewards Network.

Theme: Creating a paradigm shift in human approach to water management, examples of grass roots solutions to water crises

Youth Presentation: Pumped up for Peace: a prototype project in Peru

Michael Shaw: Executive Director of Ocean Arks International; Chairman of Trustees of The Findhorn Foundation.

Theme: Ecological restoration of polluted water bodies and recycling of waste waters

4:00 – 5:00 p.m. Workshop and Case Studies:

May East, Oren Lyons, Michael Shaw, John Todd and others.

For more information contact:

John Clausen <jclausen@igc.org> or Frances Edwards <freerowan@aol.com>

Telephone: 203-972-0695

Water of Life: Fresh Perspectives on the World’s Water Crisis

October 16^th. 2003, at the UN, NYC

Speakers:

(incomplete list)

Rashid Alimov has been the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Tajikistan to the UN since 1995. Before that, he worked in various Government positions, including being the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He is the author of scientific publications and monographs on issues of inter-ethnic relations, current migration processes, youth and international affairs.

Maude Barlow is the national chairperson of The Council of Canadians, Canada’s preeminent citizen’s watchdog organization. She also serves on the board of directors for The International Forum on Globalization, the San Francisco based think tank for the development of alternatives to economic globalization. Ms. Barlow is also co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, an international movement to stop the commodification of water, and an advisor to the Water Stewards Network. She is additionally the author or co-author of fourteen books, including Blue Gold, The Battle to Stop Corporate Theft of the World’s Water.

Marcia Brewster is a senior economic affairs officer in the Sustainable Development Division of the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs. She has been working mainly in the areas of water resources management and sustainable development for the last 25 years, in both UN Headquarters and at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok. Ms. Brewster is also Editor-in-Chief of the Natural Resources Journal, a quarterly academic journal published by Blackwell Publishers in Oxford. She is currently the Focal Point for the International Year of Freshwater, 2003 at the UN, as well as Task Manager of a UN system-wide Task Force on Gender and Water. She is committed to promoting a stronger role for women in water management.

Ryan Case is co-founder and director of the Water Stewards Network, an international coalition of visionary social and environmental leaders that is working to raise awareness about global water issues. The Water Stewards are building a network of grassroots initiatives from around the planet and are assembling their stories of conservation, restoration, and resistance thereby empowering people to retain or regain sovereignty over their water and create their own intelligent and responsible plans of water stewardship. www.WaterStewards.org

Manuel B. Dengo, formerly Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the UN in Geneva, is the Chief of the Water, Natural Resources and Small Island Developing States Branch at the Division for Sustainable Development, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. He also serves as Secretary of the UN Inter-agency Committee on Water Resources. Mr. Dengo is in charge of coordinating all water-related issues for the Commission on Sustainable Development. . The group he heads at the UN Secretariat has a vast technical cooperation program on integrated water resources management that implements projects in several developing countries

May East is Brazilian and has worked with music, indigenous people, women, antinuclear and environmental movements in her home country and internationally for more than two decades. Since 1992 she has lived in the Findhorn Foundation Community where she is a Trustee, as well as being the Ecovillage Project Education Coordinator and the liaison officer between the Foundation, the Global Ecovillage Network and the United Nations. Ms. East also teaches at the International Holistic University.

Oren Lyons, Onondaga Council of Chiefs, Onondaga Nation, Haudenosaunee, a leading advocate for American Indian and indigenous causes, led the first indigenous delegation to the UN, helped establish The Working Group for Indigenous Populations and other international bodies, co-founded The Traditional Circle of Indian Elders and Youth, the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force, and many other groups. Mr. Lyons is also a widely exhibited artist, the author/illustrator of Dog Story and co-author/editor of Exiled in the Land of the Free: Democracy, Indian Nations and the U.S. Constitution, and a major figure in world Lacrosse (an Iroquois invention).

Michael Shaw is executive director of Ocean Arks International. By replicating and accelerating the natural processes found in rivers, wetlands, and lakes, Ocean Arks is helping to establish sustainable methods of water management. Mr. Shaw’s field is ecological design and he has been involved in all phases of the development and implementation of Living Machine natural wastewater treatment systems since 1989, being co-author with Dr John Todd of a number of wastewater treatment patents. He co-founded an ecovillage in Vermont and is chairman of the trustees of the Findhorn Foundation in Scotland.

John Todd is an internationally recognized biologist, the author of more than 200 technical and popular articles on biology and planetary stewardship, and is considered a global leader in the field of ecological water purification. He is the cofounder of several organizations and companies with ecological missions including: The New Alchemy Institute, Ocean Arks International, Living Technologies, Inc., and the Water Stewards Network. Dr. Todd has been the recipient of many accolades and awards. Most recently he was profiled in Inventing Modern America, a publication of the Lemelson-MIT Program for Invention and Innovation. He received an honorary doctorate from Green Mountain College in 2000 and the Bioneers Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. Dr. Todd and his wife, Nancy Jack Todd, received the Lindbergh Award in 1998, in recognition of their work in technology and the environment. In the late 1990s, he won two EPA awards for his innovations with Living Machines. He is currently a professor at the University of Vermont and serves on a number of environmental and technical boards. His books include: The Village as Solar Ecology; Tomorrow Is Our Permanent Address; Reinhabiting Cities and Towns: Designing for Sustainability; and Eco-Cities to Living Machines. www.oceanarks.org

Nancy Jack Todd is Vice President of Ocean Arks International and editor of its journal Annals of Earth; co-founder with John Todd of the New Alchemy Institute, which has been at the forefront of work in appropriate-scale technology; author and co-author of many works, including Bio-shelters, Ocean Arks and City Farming.

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