Wednesday, March 28, 2012 — 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm
Coach House, Green College, UBC

Access to water and sanitation for all is central to achieving global justice for poor women and men. Yet the global aid architecture is still straining to solve what appears on the surface a simple problem: how to provide water and sanitation to the planet’s population. Despite successive global declarations and efforts, in 2008 over 2.6 billion people still lived without access to improved sanitation facilities and nearly 900 million people received drinking water from unimproved sources. At the core of this appalling situation is a global failure of collective action, despite repeated principles, declarations and meetings.

As the global community rushes to mark the end of the Global Freshwater Decade 2005-2015 and the MDGs, it is worth pausing and looking at a range of contested pathways from past to present. Past lessons suggest that the wider global water and sanitation community needs to  rethink approaches and emphases, shifting from targets and global pronouncement to issues concerning sustainability, global/local mismatches, contested knowledges, equity, politics and power.

Lyla Mehta is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex and an Adjunct Professor at the Norwegian University of Life sciences. She is a sociologist and her work has focussed on  the politics of water and sanitation, scarcity and forced displacement. She uses the case of water to address conceptual debates concerning rights, access and power/knowledge interfaces in environment and development. She has been involved in advocacy work on water, dams and development issues with NGOs and social movements in India and Europe. Her books include ‘The politics and poetics of water: naturalising scarcity in Western India’, ‘Displaced by development: confronting marginalisation and gender injustice’  and  ‘The limits to scarcity: contesting the politics of allocation’.

March 6th – 14th: “ (Gallery Concourse, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Granville Island)
An art exhibition and event series examining the spaces in which we live through the lens of water. Visit www.downstream.ecuad.ca for more information.

Wednesday March 21st (7pm): “Bodies of Water” Dance Performance (Roundhouse Community Centre)
Opening by elder Florence James. Public Dance Performance and Workshop by Seonagh Odhiambo and her troupe Asava Dance at the Roundhouse Community Centre. Plus screening of short film ‘imush q’uyatl’un - Florence James and Karolle Wall. Visit www.downstream.ecuad.ca for more information.

Thursday March 22nd (8:30am-5:30pm): Canadian Water Resources Association & Engineers Without Boarders - all day seminar on water and food security at Performance Works, Granville Island. Featuring guest speaker Scott Niedermayer, former NHL defenseman and Freshwater Ambassador for World Wildlife Fund – Canada. For more information and registration click here. This event will be followed by “On Edge Readings and Special Screening” at 7pm at Emily Carr University of Art and Design (see below). THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED!!

The Global Transboundary International Waters Initiative and the Institute of Asian Research are hosting a lunch time discussion session on transboundary water issues. This will be held in Room 120, CK Choi building, UBC Vancouver Campus on Thursday March 22nd from 12:30-2:30pm.

Thursday March 22nd (7-8:30pm): “On Edge Readings and Special Screening” (Lecture Theatre SB 301, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Granville Island)
Readings by Lee Maracle and Michael Blackstock, followed by the screening of Samaqan: Water Stories with Director Jeff Bear. This event is free and open to the public. For more information visit www.downstream.ecuad.ca

One exhibition and three events about globalization and migration along the Yangtze River in China.

Exhibit, Reframing Waterscapes: March 15th-May 18th, 2012
Lobby Gallery, Liu Institute for Global Issues

Opening night reception: March 15th, 4-6pm:
Introduction to exhibit by Waterscapes research team (Gu Xiong, Chris Lee and Jennifer Chun)
Film screening: “A Moth in Spring” (Yu Gu, 2009, 26 minutes) followed by Q&A

Artist talk with Gu Xiong: March 26th, 12-1pm
3rd floor Boardroom, Liu Institute for Global Issues
Lunch will be provided; please RSVP to globalethnographies@gmail.com by March 23.

Two Documentaries: April 5th, 4-8pm
4-5:30pm: “Last Train Home” (Lixin Fan, 2009, 85 minutes)
5:30-6pm: Dinner. Food will be provided; please RSVP to globalethnographies@gmail.com by April 2.
6-8pm: “Waking the Green Tiger” (Gary Marcuse, 2011, 78 minutes) followed by Q&A with Gary Marcuse

All events are free and open to the public!

For more information click here.

On the 17th February 2012, the University of British Columbia’s Program on Water Governance held a panel event exploring Water Security in Canada.

Water is arguably our most critical resource. But how secure is Canada’s water? What are the greatest threats we face? And what should be our priorities for management and conservation? Invited experts explored these questions, and presented views on current and future water issues in Canada. The presentations were followed by a moderated discussion with audience members.

Speakers included:

- Prof. Gordon Young (former UN World Water Assessment Program coordinator),
– Prof. Howard Wheater (Canada Excellence Research Chair in Water Security and Director, Global Institute for Water Security, University of Saskatchewan),
- Prof. Tom Pedersen (Director, Pacific Institue for Climate Solutions, University of Victoria)
- Prof. Diana Allen (Department of Earth Sciences, Simon Fraser University)
- Dr. Judy Isaac-Renton (Public Health Laboratory Director, BC Centre for Disease Control).

The panel was moderated by Prof. Karen Bakker, Director of the UBC Program on Water Governance (and author of Eau Canada: The Future of Canada’s Water) and Prof. Mike Church (University of British Columbia).

“Water Portraits” by Peter Holmes were also on display.

Water Security in Canada was a free event open to the public, held in conjunction with the 2012 Annual Meeting of the AAAS in Vancouver. It took place in room 109, Vancouver Convention Centre, West Building on Friday 17th February from 7:30-9:30pm.

Event sponsors:

March 5-14: Concourse Galley Exhibition
March 21-24: World Water Day events

Emily Carr University of Art and Design invites artist to hare their work investigating how perceptions of water shape our experiences with it. It’s been said that wars of the future will be fought over water. Alternatively, however, water could form a path to peace. If so, what would this look like? If we are in a perpetual collaboration with water, how might this perception or acknowledgment change us?

For further information visit www.downstream.ecuad.ca or email reimaginingwater@gmail.com

The event, “A Water Gathering: Collaborative Watershed Governance in BC and Beyond – Solutions Forum,” will take place January 26 to 27, 2012 at UBC Robson Square, Vancouver.

The goal of this gathering is to provide participants with practical knowledge and skills for developing and maintaining collaborative processes, and to build new and strengthen existing networks. Participants will identify the skills essential for collaborative engagement and the necessary steps for realizing new forms of governance. Drawing on successful stories of change, the gathering will focus on what can be done and how to do it.

The POLIS WSP is helping organize and deliver the event, hosted by the Pacific Business and Law Institute and the Summit Institute. For more information or to register call 604-730-2500 (local) or 877-730-2555 (toll free) or visit www.pbli.com/933.

Over the past two decades, geographers have made advancements in addressing issues relating to the politics of scale and water governance independently. We suggest that together the discussions of “politics of scale” and “governance” will bring a more nuanced approach to governing flow resources such as water. For example, unpacking issues related to jurisdictional fragmentation and social construction of borders have both theoretical and practical value. In addition, an expanded relationship between theory and praxis, where academic learning and on-the-ground knowledge are exchanged, would enrich our understanding of the scalar challenges in water governance.

For more detailed information on the 3 sessions please visit the following website links: Session 1, Session 2, Session 3

Session Organizers:
Emma Norman: emma.norman@ubc.ca
Christina Cook: clcook@interchange.ubc.ca
Karen Bakker: bakker@geog.ubc.ca

Five Myths About Canada’s Water
Date: Friday, January 28th 2011
Time: 7:30 – 9:00 am
Location: Enigma Restuarant (4397 West 10 Avenue, Vancouver BC)
Cost: $20

The opening guest speaker was Canadian author Andrew Nikiforuk (Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent). Nikiforuk discussed the water energy nexus focusing on three areas: the impact of the tar sands on water, the Enbridge (Gateway) pipeline project, and hydrofracturing (a water-intense process that is used to release shale gas). Nikiforuk was joined by two more panelists: Chief Bob Chamberlin, chair of the Musgamagw-Tsawataineuk Tribal Council, and Patrick Lucas, an environmental scientist and returned CUSO-VSO volunteer. The panel was moderated by Dr. Karen Bakker, director of the UBC Program on Water Governance (and author of Eau Canada: The Future of Canada’s Water).

Water: Challenges and Opportunities was held at UBC Robson Square. A 6 part video recording of Andrew Nikiforuk’s presentation at this event is available on You Tube:

World Water Day 2010 – part 1 of 6

World Water Day 2010 – part 2 of 6

World Water Day 2010 – part 3 of 6

World Water Day 2010 – part 4 of 6

World Water Day 2010 – part 5 of 6 (Q&A)

World Water Day 2010 – part 6 of 6 (Q&A)

The event was sponsored by Connecting Environmental Professionals, Tides Canada, Amnesty International, Program on Water Governance (UBC), Council of Canadians, Oxfam Canada, The Water Team, the Sauder School of Business (UBC) and Bullfrog Power.