BRINGING THE WORLD WATER LAW TO LIFE
Global Medicine for Rapid Whole-System Healing
Water is the source, sustenance and medicine for All Life on Earth.
In prioritizing Water, we prioritize All of Life.
Healing Water, Healing the World
The World Water Law invites all of humanity to unite around the radical healing of the planetary Waters and Water cycle. This foundational Law works to ensure that all humans and animals have guaranteed access to natural, uncontaminated Water. It holds each and every individual, organization, business, sector and government fully accountable for their impact on Water. Ultimately, the World Water Law activates a whole-system healing response that addresses many of the root causes of our escalating global challenges.
People of all cultures and ages are undergoing a profound shift in how we perceive the world and our role in it. The COVID-19 "pandemic" has unified humanity around the issue of health and has catalyzed a shared understanding of how human health is inherently dependent on the health of the entire Web of Life. As we reflect on our disconnection from Nature and the extent of the damage we are causing to our planetary life-support system, citizens around the world are — now more than ever — ready to rise and unite for All of Life. The shifting global situation now provides an unprecedented opportunity to fundamentally transform our dysfunctional and outdated social systems, and to put in place new, foundational laws that proactively cultivate a radically new way of organizing ourselves as a species.
As our understanding of the interconnected nature of our global ecosystem evolves, we are realizing that we cannot transform our fragmented systems country by country, law by law, or policy by policy. If we are to wisely protect and heal our shared planetary home, it is vital that all nation states collectively and simultaneously adopt internationally binding agreements that align with the Laws of Nature and that ensure the health and integrity of the entire Web of Life.
The future looks bleak if we are to rely exclusively on the symptomatic and piecemeal solutions offered by the current political approach. However, when we shift our focus to a whole-system healing framework, we recognize that rapid and radical Earth healing is not only possible — it can also be far simpler than we may have imagined.
The proposal for the World Water Law is the first global initiative to support the worldwide adoption and implementation of Codes for a Healthy Earth. The Codes offer a foundational whole-system framework to support citizens in working together across national, cultural and ideological boundaries for radical system transformation and rapid social and ecological regeneration.
The proposal is not a legal document as such, but rather an invitation for citizens of all nations to work together to discover how best to ensure the global adoption and implementation of the World Water Law.
We are all birthed from Water. Ecosystems and human communities evolve around Water.
As humanity rebirths itself at this critical juncture in our evolution, we align with Nature
to honor, protect and restore the one Water body that births and nourishes all of Life.
Why Water?
Human beings are estimated to be about 50 - 75 percent Water and at the same time 99 percent of the molecules in our body are Water. Access to pure Water is the foundation for individual, collective and planetary health. Pristine Water strengthens our individual and collective immune system and enhances Life force exponentially. When we invest in purifying the planetary Waters and restoring the planetary Water cycle, all of Life benefits.
Just as the ‘Global Pause’ has revealed how Nature can heal and restore herself with remarkable speed and efficiency, banning all contamination of Water could have extraordinary effects - not only on the natural world, but also on our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. As we re-learn and practice right relationship with Water, we cultivate fertile grounds for our evolution towards a human culture and civilization that protects and honors each other and all of Life. Given the vital role of Water in so many of Life’s functions, we can clearly recognize how a coordinated investment in Pure Water for All of Life is a powerful medicine for this time.
As we recognize that the healing of the whole begins with the collective healing of our Waters, we see an ancient Law return to human consciousness - one law that supersedes all other laws. The World Water Law aspires to give voice to this Original Law of Water, requiring the restoration of the pristine nature of Earth’s Water body to the fullest extent possible.
The structure of pristine Water is designed by Nature to nourish, heal and support Life. Water is a deeply mysterious and nuanced information carrier. When the structure of water is disturbed through pollutants or noise, the original life-nourishing qualities are impacted. This in turn creates stress in the body, and undermines our individual and collective immune system.
The World Water Law ensures that we shift from the problematic notion of having to settle for what is considered “safe” drinking Water, yet contains and legitimizes human-made contaminants, to pure, natural Water that maintains its life-nourishing intelligence. Ultimately, the World Water Law simultaneously activates an ancient wisdom and an organizing principle throughout human culture that has the power to realign our behavior with the principles of Life and healthy living ecosystems. Like a significant upgrade in our collective operating system, the World Water Law encodes humanity with vitalizing information and a range of life-enhancing benefits.
The Purpose of Governance
Casualties to human and environmental health are inevitable when laws are defined by governments and corporations that are disconnected from the laws of Nature and the self-organizing intelligence of healthy ecosystems.
Codes for a Healthy Earth suggest that the only legitimate purpose of governance and all sectors is to protect and cultivate the health and vitality of the planet and all its inhabitants for generations to come. Given that Water is the foundation of our personal and collective health, the Codes propose that a primary function of governance is to ensure that all humans and all animals have guaranteed access to pure Water — as Nature intended.
The World Water Law works to implement this proposal. It offers a unifying pathway towards taking up our individual and collective roles as stewards for the healthy evolution of all Life. As a foundational universal law that aligns with Nature and the good of the whole, the World Water Law transcends country and corporate-based interests and control systems. As such, it paves the way for a coherent set of global Root Laws that protect the Foundations of Life — Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Climate, Biodiversity, and the Web of Life (as outlined in Codes for a Healthy Earth). An international grassroots alliance working towards the global adoption of this foundational law shifts power and authority from governments and corporations to citizens who are most knowledgeable and invested in the health and wellness of the entire Web of Life.
The possibility of uniting around the World Water Law as a critical step towards radical whole-system healing will generate vital global conversations, not only about Water and health, but also about the redesign of our social systems. If adopted and skilfully implemented simultaneously around the world, the World Water Law has the power to catalyze rapid whole-system healing and transformation in all aspects of society.
This one uncompromising, common sense foundational law can essentially replace volumes of bureaucratic rules and regulations that often conceal and exacerbate the compromise and corruption of our legal and justice systems.
Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.
~ Wendell Berry
Holistic Benefits of the World Water Law
The World Water Law brings with it many gifts and opportunities for shifting human culture towards a deeper understanding and embodiment of:
Accountability for the Health of the Whole
The World Water Law underscores the principle of mutual accountability and accountability to the health of the whole of which we are part. This in turn nourishes a deeper cultural awareness and responsibility for the consequences of our choices, actions and lifestyles.
Education and Learning for the Well-being of all Life
Learning about the Water Cycle and the role of Water in the Life-cycle is essential to being able to implement the law. This educational focus will contribute to situating “Learning for Life” at the center of the global learning curriculum and cultivate a culture that serves our collective knowledge and wisdom base for the healthy stewardship of Life.
Global and Transdisciplinary Peace and Cooperation
Given the interconnected nature of the planetary Waters, the World Water Law provides an obvious and essential foundation for cultivating, not only political, but also health-oriented and transdisciplinary cooperation among countries and regions.
Truth and Transparency
To implement the World Water Law it will be essential to set up a system for co-creating an open, real-time map of our impact on Water. The objective nature of measuring Water quality, the simple and accessible technologies for doing so, as well as a global user-generated mapping system enables all forms of Water contamination and obstruction to Water flow to be identified and tracked to their source. This can then be replicated for other elements such as air, soil, etc.
Holistic Health and Whole-System Healing Wisdom
Whole-system healing essentially applies the wisdom of holistic healing to the entire biosphere and human society as one interconnected living organism. It activates a coordinated global response that engages all nations, all systems, all sectors and all challenges systemically and simultaneously. The collective focus on Water for Life embeds into our culture a new and shared awareness of the relationships between the Foundations of Life, our health and our actions. It anchors holistic healing wisdom in the heart of our legal, economic and political systems.
Autonomy, Resilience & Interdependence
The corona lock-down and economic disruption have provided a powerful lesson in the importance of local resilience — especially in terms of food and Water security. The World Water Law lays the most essential foundation for realizing healthy and resilient local communities that effectively manage their own food and water sovereignty.
Integrity
The World Water Law works to reintroduce integrity into our fragmented and compromised cultures — integrity both in the sense of wholeness as well as in the alignment of our words and intentions with our actions. Cultivating a culture of mutual accountability also supports our personal and collective integrity. By recognizing our planetary Waters as one body, we work to ensure its integrity — both in terms of restoring their natural flow as well as the pristine structure and integrity of Water itself.
Creativity
The Water Law encourages creative pathways for addressing pressing global issues and invites citizens everywhere to bring their unique creativity and inspiration to this shared endeavor.
Loving and Responsible Stewardship of Life
By re-learning how to care for and honor Water, we open the pathway for healing our relationships with all aspects of Creation. We also learn to "leave no one behind" as access to pure Water is recognized as a birthright of every human, animal and ecosystem. As we take up our roles as stewards for the healthy evolution of all Life we imbue our culture and our social systems with a deep sense and understanding of sacred service to the good of the whole.
One Law to Realize All the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Many of the SDGs are interlinked and one trait common to most of the SDGs is their dependence upon sustainable freshwater resources... An integrated and holistic approach with water at the heart of policies, planning and investments, provides the foundation for a transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies.
~ Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI)
Prioritizing pure Water for all leads to healthy food systems, healthy bodies, clear minds, healthy cultures and healthy ecosystems. When human beings re-establish right relationship with Water, all sectors of human affairs will be activated to realign and reorient around Life-enhancing principles.
The infographic below offers some ideas for how one global root law to protect and ensure access to pure Water, not only advances most of the SDGs simultaneously and in record time, it also provides the necessary foundations for an entirely new and life-enriching way of organizing ourselves as a species.
Strategies for Implementation: Bringing the World Water Law to Life
The system as we know it has already been disrupted. Much that was considered impossible is now becoming possible. Given the critical nature of Water for Life, the question is not if this is possible or not, but how we can do this in the wisest, most efficient and most compassionate way possible.
In order for the World Water Law to be adopted and implemented it will be supported by a range of initiatives that engage all sectors. Ideas for such initiatives include:
Sign The World Water Law Petition
A petition has been created on Care2 (the most grassroots and ethically aligned petition site that also allows petitions to be embedded on websites). The worldwide petition can serve as a global referendum which, in turn, can seed national referendums that bring the conversation deeper into the mainstream and local contexts. Click here to read and sign the petition.
An Open Letter
An open letter signed by global influencers from diverse sectors, cultures and disciplines underscoring the essential and universal nature of the World Water Law petition, will be shared through alternative and mainstream media groups worldwide.
Awareness Building
A global information and inspiration campaign seeding the World Water Law and new ways of organizing as a species in the minds and hearts of citizens across the globe.
Alliances
Given that Water spans and integrates many sectors, disciplines and causes, the World Water Law offers a powerful invitation for building a diverse global alliance dedicated to whole-system health. As a foundational and universal cause that unites and addresses different issues and topics, the World Water Law effectively galvanizes coherent citizen-led action to forge a win-win-win outcome for all involved.
World Water Year 2021
Making 2021 a year for global cooperation around the implementation of the World Water Law. A set of measures, incentives and deterrents will be set in place to ensure that all countries, corporations, groups and individuals are inspired to participate in the global healing of Water and are held fully accountable for their impact on Water. Mapping technologies can support the monitoring of progress throughout the year and initiatives that nourish global cooperation and guaranteed access to pure Water will be incentivized.
Lead 4 Life
A global campaign to identify leaders from all sectors, from the grassroots community-leader to presidents, who recognize and endorse the World Water Law as a foundational step for rapid and radical whole-system healing. A true leader protects, serves and cultivates the health and vitality of All Life.
World Water Fund
A global fund dedicated to implementing the World Water Law that is overseen and managed in full transparency by diverse 'wisdom and expertise councils'. The fund will be supported through corporate reparations, private donations and crowd-sourcing.
A Community Platform
An online community platform for citizen self-organization, sharing resources, and coordinating around the global adoption and implementation of the World Water Law.
Water Solutions Library
An open global library of resources including user-generated and curated resources will be made publicly available to all.
Measures and Mapping
A global mapping and measuring system showing the current quality and flow of Water around the world; the impact of diverse enterprises that undermine and those that nourish pure Water for all. This initiative can evolve through networks of Water Guardians worldwide, as well as through educational initiatives that engage citizens of all ages in the mapping and tracking process. The development of such a mapping system will also pioneer a visual, integrative update of the "State of Planetary Health", and Planetary Biometrics as measured by the Water quality and flow, which can then also be updated by other measures such as quality of soil, biodiversity, air quality, etc.
Stewardship and Issue-Based Councils
The World Water Law community platform will host self-organizing 'wisdom and expertise councils' that can gather around different aspects of Water stewardship and whole-systems health to offer best counsel to the evolving ecosystem of initiatives around Water.
Creating a citizen network of Water Councils organized by Watersheds, in time, designed to replace the current system of artificial political boundaries of counties, states, even countries.
Pure Water for All
Fundamental to the World Water Law is the understanding that Water cannot be commodified or used in any way that depletes access for others. Transitioning from the ownership and privatization of Water to wise and competent stewardship of Water so that all humans, animals and ecosystems may have access, is a core objective of the World Water Law.
A concept for a global co-creative initiative dedicated to ensuring that all humans and animals have guaranteed access to the purest possible Water in the shortest possible time — starting the most vulnerable groups, species and ecosystems. This initiative will be supported by the resources mentioned above and will include:
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mapping and analyzing ecosystems and communities that require the most urgent support
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Gathering and showcasing/disseminating the best solutions and systems that can adapt to local needs and conditions of rural communities and ecosystems.
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Gathering field-leaders from all related sectors to form advisory councils on best practices and strategies.
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Gathering facilitators, project managers and volunteers to implement solutions on the ground.
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initiating comprehensive training programs for the skilled, local self-management of Water, food and energy sovereignty, and ecosystem rehabilitation.
It is not a question of cost but of priority. Bringing water and sanitation to all would cost $10 billion a year. That is about the same as Europe spends on ice cream.
~ Richard Jolly, chairman of the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council
A Global Reset Guided By Water
The World Water Law impacts and is impacted by all sectors of society. The implementation strategy puts in place processes to support the exploration of sectoral and intersectoral impact on Water to encourage dialogue and action around impact, accountability and creativity for best Water practices to ensure pure Water for all. This would include for instance:
Economic Transition Strategies
Given that many enterprises will have to readjust significantly to this new law, holistic strategies need to be put in place to support the transition or dissolution of these companies. Supporting population alternative income streams will call for a mass mobilization like we have never seen before. Employees of transitioning or dissolving companies will require a basic income and retraining during this transition phase. This is particularly relevant within the context of the coronavirus reset, where the entire economy is undergoing a radical reform, and many businesses are reinventing themselves. The World Water Law provides a global standard for the reset of all human enterprise. As we recognize the devastation that has resulted from compromising our life-support system, we realize there is no justification for any enterprise to in any way contaminate or withhold access to any of our planetary Waters. Rather than propping up unethical and polluting industries, public monies and reparation monies from corporations can be redirected to retraining and investing in healthy business and industry. The World Water Law seeds a Life-centered economy.
Law
In a healthy world all laws serve and protect Life. The World Water Law is a root law that paves the way for other such root laws for each of the Foundations of Life. In this sense it will ultimately supersede and delegitimize any laws and regulations that directly, indirectly or potentially enable the undermining of the health of the planetary Waters and Water cycle, or in any way limit the guaranteed access of humans and animals to pure Water.
Health
We prioritize a holistic health and well-being system that supports and works with the nourishing and medicinal qualities of pure Water and that protects the planetary Water system (from pharmaceutical contamination etc.). As we learn how environmental and health care agencies have been compromised by corporate interests, we are compelled to create a new measuring systems for whole-system health with clear indicators that help us to immediately identify all substances or practices that undermine the health of any part of the whole.
Media
In a culture where all are held responsible for their impact on Water, it is important also to call for the accountability of the media regarding their impact on human culture, consciousness, and our relationship to Water.
Agriculture and Food
As industrial agricultural practices are currently one of the biggest polluters of the land and waterways, all agriculture will need to transition rapidly to organic, local, plant-based, Water-efficient methods. By ensuring that all human settlement areas have their own regenerative water source, with distribution networks that run on renewable energy, we lay the groundwork for all such settlements to produce abundant healthy food at the local level. Urban water catchment will also be redesigned to serve surrounding urban food forest systems.
Learning and Education
Prioritizing pure Water for all sets in motion a global learning process about the essential role of Water in birthing, maintaining, nourishing and informing the entire Web of Life. Learning about Water evolves our understanding of interconnectedness, whole-system processes and whole-system healing. It cultivates a global culture with a common understanding about and respect for Life. Interdisciplinary learning opportunities about Water cultivate a whole-system approach to learning. It focuses on how the interdependencies and complementarities of the different knowledge areas (often taught in isolation from each other and Life) can be used to serve Life.
Military
As a key step towards a global peace and healing process, all countries will be called on to repurpose a significant portion of their military and defense budget, and physical and human resources, towards the healing and regeneration of the Water cycle and to ensure all humans and animals have guaranteed access to pure Water. By orienting its power and resources to protecting, healing and replenishing the Water sources in a coordinated unifying effort, the global military force restores the role of warriorship and defense to its rightful place - the protection and guardianship of all of Life.
Infrastructure
Ensure infrastructure aligns with the natural and vitalizing flow of the planetary Waters and the Water cycle.
Together We Rise for Water!
Together We Rise for All of Life!