July 11, 2012 | by On the Commons Team
Through our co-creative fieldwork, On the Commons seeks to transform societal decision making for water stewardship toward participatory, democratic, community-centered systems that value equity and sustainability as a strategy. Our work is based on the following ten water commons principles.
- Affirm water as a commons, that is, it belongs to everyone and no one, passed onto future generations in sufficient volume and quality
- Ensure that the earth and all of its ecosystems enjoy rights to water for their survival – indeed it is on those ecosystems that human life depends
- Conserve water as society’s first course of action (enforced by law), including suggesting drastic changes to industrial and agricultural practices
- Treat watersheds – the source of water – as a common as well and not simply the water itself
- Encourage local, community management while legally binding communities to respect upstream and downstream neighbors’ rights
- Forge or affirm trans-boundary agreements that respect water sovereignty for both communities and nations
- Provide water as a basic principle of justice, not as an act of charity
- Ensure public delivery and fair pricing of water
- Promote enshrining the right to water in nation-state constitutions, laws and a UN covenant
- Employ innovative legal tools to protect water and manage water as a commons, including through public and community trusts
