Water is essential to life and common to everything that lives. It is our most precious resource and, therefore, needs our protection. This is precisely what Maude Barlow, Canada’s renowned water advocate, has argued for years. In her most recent book, Whose Water Is It Anyway?, she states that a water secure and a water-just future depends upon our adoption of four principles: “1. Water is a human right and an issue of justice and charity; “2. water is a common heritage and public trust and, therefore, access to water must not be allowed to be decided by private, for profit interests; “3. water has rights beyond its service to humans and must be respected and protected for the ecosystem and other living beings; and “4. rather than being a source of conflict and division, water can be nature’s gift to teach us how we might learn to live more lightly on the planet and in harmony with one another.”