The campaign to have water declared a human right was dramatically advanced at the United Nations on July 28, 2010, when a large majority voted for a resolution to recognize the human right to water and sanitation. Canada, the US, and 39 other countries abstained.
Water on the Table is a character-driven, social-issue documentary that explores Canada's relationship to its fresh water, arguably its most precious natural resource. The film asks the question: is water a commercial good like running shoes or Coca-Cola? Or, is water a human right like air?
Canadian crusader Maude Barlow has had to defend the life-or-death truth against corporate interests for years... And even today, it is a war unwon. At stake in her crusade is humanity's own right to the liquid that sustains all life - balanced against powerful interests that insist water is just another resource to be bought and sold.
This video could potentially support two very different modules. In Grade 5: Module 1 "students will begin to build knowledge about human rights through a close read of ... the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), paired with short firsthand accounts of people around the world who currently face human rights challenges." In Grade 7: Module 4B students come to understand the issues of water management and in Unit 2, "investigate the strategies of better agricultural and industrial water management". This video could support this aspect of Module 4B by having students thing through water management on a global scale.