I more or less agree with Juan. We would need assurences that we can limit supply to adress enviornemantal concerns. There is also the issue of NAFTA and the world trade oranization. I don't know if we are alowed to give it free to Canadains but charge Americans for it. As a bare minium we would need to re-negotiate the trade agrements first.We could build a half dozen water pipelines to the U.S. and sell our water wholesale. The problem is: How will we ever shut them off? Populations in the U.S. will grow and Canadian water will become a way of life that they would go to war to keep. Our water supply, like the oil, is not infinite. We shouldn't even be discussing this with them. Water should already be more valuable than oil.
Sixty percent of your freshwater gets dumped into the oceans. If you export a fraction of that water, to regions that need it, what did you lose? It's being dumped anyway.
What then Juan?
Your dreams will be realized.
That sounds perfectly reasonable, but rivers are supposed to run into the ocean. The Colorado river used to flow majestically to the Gulf of California. So much water has been diverted for agriculture and human needs that the river is reduced to a trickle by the time it makes it to the Gulf and there is still a growing water shortage
Canada's fresh water from snow melt is going down every year. If we build water pipelines to the U.S., the demand will keep growing and in a few years we will be short of water, and then what?
Besides, as I mentioned earlier, it's not about draining your lakes and rivers, it's about capturing water that will end up going into the ocean anyway. You can literally ship water all over the world.
- http://www.lenntech.comIncreases in world population means increased water use and less availability on a per capita basis. In 1989 there was some 9,000 cubic metres of freshwater per person available for human use. By 2000, this had dropped to 7,800 cubic metres and it is expected to plummet to 5,100 cubic metres per person by 2025, when the global population is projected to reach 8 billion.
People already use over half the world's accessible freshwater now, and may use nearly three-quarters by 2025. Over the twentieth century, the world annual water use has grown from about 300 km3 to about 2,100 km3
Water is a renewable resource.
It really isn't. The Colorado River can't be replaced, nor any other river that has been used up. We have to learn that we aren't the only creatures using the rivers and lakes. I wonder how much longer we will be allowed to waste water on lawns and the like.
I can't speak for people I don't know, but the St Lawrence swallowed the Empress of Ireland like it was a kid's toy boat. The flow into the ocean is almost beyond belief, surely to God, we can spare ten feet of water for the width of the river if only to help a freind in need. America knows it has to conserve water, it also knows that Canada can't even begin to defend itself. Of course, they often fight the wrong war, but they don't compel us to fight it with them. We have been living under the American defence umbrella for decades, lets stop concerning ourselves about animals, and start thinking about people.