page_title: Water export
section_title: Water exports from Canada to the US
hierarchical_section_title: Water export / Water exports from Canada to the US
caption_attribution_description: English: A composed satellite photograph of North America in orthographic projection. The observer is centered at (40° N, 95° W), at Moon distance above the Earth. Español: Imagen de satélite de América del Norte
context_page_description: Water exports involve exporting freshwater from one country to another. Large increases in human population and economic growth throughout the world during the twentieth century placed a huge stress on the world’s freshwater resources. Combined with climate change, they will place an even greater demand on water resources in this century. Water shortages have become an international concern, and freshwater has been described as “blue gold” and “the oil of the 21st Century.”
context_section_description: Canada has 7% of the world’s renewable supply of freshwater. Freshwater export between Canada and the US currently takes place at a small scale, mostly as bottled water exports. The bottled water industry exports water in containers usually no larger than twenty litres. But even that can be controversial -  the multinational food giant Nestle was accused of attempting to “drain” the town of Hillsburgh, Ontario, of its water in 2012 and 2013, during a drought.
  Since 1850 Americans have been diverting much of the water of the Chicago River, which would naturally flow into Lake Michigan, into the Mississippi basin over Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. In that case, though, the goal was not taking possession of the water that would otherwise end up in the Great Lakes, but directing Chicago's effluent away from Lake Michigan, Chicago's source of water.
caption: A satellite image of North America. The Great Lakes are in the east, while the south-west clearly lacks water.
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