While in the United States we are in high gear for one of the most important elections of our history and strapping in for an economic roller coaster ride, in other parts of the Americas, elections are being held and won on issues that affect the lives of each and every person - like the human right to water.

Can you imagine being able to vote on whether everyone will have water to brush their teeth, wash their clothes, cook, and clean, and be able to take a bath? Not to mention being able to use a toilet?

On Sunday, September 28, people in Ecuador went to the polls to adopt a new constitution. Winning with a clear majority of 60 percent, Ecuadorians affirmed, among other things, that each person has a right to access safe, sufficient, affordable water for daily human needs. And they affirmed that there are some services, like water, that should not be subject to chaotic market forces.

Since Sunday, privatization of water services is unconstitutional in Ecuador. Still, Ecuadorians didn't stop there. Now each Ecuadorian has a right to a safe, healthy environment. And nature has rights, too!

We all know that winning the election is the first step, making the human right to water a reality for each person is a ways off. But the door in Ecuador is open to those who have been locked out, and it is shut to those who have been on the irresponsible insider's trading track, holding all the keys for too long.

Take the Bechtel subsidiary InterAgua, the water and sanitation business in Guayaquil that shut off water to 40,000 households after raising its rates, but did not provide the services it was charging residents for.

The Ecuadorian courts caught up with InterAgua, fining the corporation $1.5 million for noncompliance with its contractual obligations. Now Bechtel has to ship its business elsewhere.

UUSC partner El Movimiento Mi Cometa / Observatorios Publicos worked hard to hold InterAgua accountable and get the human right to water in the constitution. Why? Because their families and many others were served water poisoned with disease and toxics from InterAgua's taps -- and even their poor water service was shut off when the rates were raised too high for average people to pay.

The good news is that the tide is changing, and not just in Ecuador. Other people are using the ballot box to get access to water. In Colombia, over 2 million voters recently signed a referendum petition to put a constitutional human right to water to the vote next year. Uruguay passed a similar constitution in 2004, and Bolivia is debating a new constitution right now.

Being able to turn on your tap by putting a vote in the ballot box won't just happen in the Global South. Pundits in California say that although Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's bond issue for water infrastructure was pulled from the November ballot, it will likely go to a special election next March.

California's $9 billion water bond raises some of the same questions as the recent, now failed, bailout package deal and subsequent fiasco: what about poor and working people? Who is really going to benefit from these big transfers of wealth and water? Will people in the rural areas of the Central Valley, who can't drink the contaminated water they have to pay for, get access to safe, affordable water after the bond issue passes?

People in Barnstead, N.H., passed a law to stop a water bottler from taking all of their well water. And residents in Maine and California are diving into water justice politics for people and the environment by blocking water bottlers until the environmental impacts of bottling can be truly studied.

Maybe there are more lessons from the Americas on how to make sure every person has access to water: democratic tidal waves that are changing the face of our earth and the lives of all of our families.

Catch or make a water justice wave in your home town and ride - all the way to the ballot box!

To read more about UUSC's work to promote the human right to water, download UUSC's Environmental Justice Fact Sheet here.

A campaign by UUSC program partner El Movimiento Mi Cometa and the Observatorio Ciudadano de Servicios Publicos to hold Bechtel subsidiary InterAgua accountable in Guayaquil, Ecuador, may pay off as the water and sanitation concessionaire was fined $1.5 million for not complying with its contract. InterAgua failed to make 8,000 new connections in time to meet its contractual targets for water services.

In InterAgua's service area in June 2005, 158 children contracted Hepatitis A from water services to several schools. UUSC led a fact-finding delegation in May 2007 to Guayaquil, and brought major press attention to the case and to InterAgua's practice of dumping untreated sewage and industrial waste in the Guayas River and estuary. According to research, InterAgua charges some of the highest rates in Latin America for its sewerage services -- 80 percent of the household water bill, whether there is sewerage service or not.

Cesar Cardenas, founder of Mi Cometa, is running in the constituent assembly this fall on a platform of constitutional reform that seeks to enshrine the human right to water and make privitization of public services like water and sanitation unconstitutional.

Mi Cometa and Observatorio Ciudadano expect positive results in its claims against InterAgua for the dumping, and they will be monitoring to be sure InterAgua pays its fines. Mi Cometa and the Observatorio Ciudadano are citizen's movements. The Observatorio Ciudadano is a "neighborhood watch" coalition where citizens like you and me work to ensure the private and public institutions fulfill their mandate. Mi Cometa and the Observatorio Cuidadano are an inspiration!

A campaign by UUSC program partner El Movimiento Mi Cometa and the Observatorio Ciudadano de Servicios Publicos to hold Bechtel subsidiary InterAgua accountable in Guayaquil, Ecuador, may pay off as the water and sanitation concessionaire was fined $1.5 million for not complying with its contract. InterAgua failed to make 8,000 new connections in time to meet its contractual targets for water services.

In InterAgua's service area in June 2005, 158 children contracted Hepatitis A from water services to several schools. UUSC led a fact-finding delegation in May 2007 to Guayaquil, and brought major press attention to the case and to InterAgua's practice of dumping untreated sewage and industrial waste in the Guayas River and estuary. According to research, InterAgua charges some of the highest rates in Latin America for its sewerage services -- 80 percent of the household water bill, whether there is sewerage service or not.

Cesar Cardenas, founder of Mi Cometa, is running in the constituent assembly this fall on a platform of constitutional reform that seeks to enshrine the human right to water and make privitization of public services like water and sanitation unconstitutional.

Mi Cometa and Observatorio Ciudadano expect positive results in its claims against InterAgua for the dumping, and they will be monitoring to be sure InterAgua pays its fines. Mi Cometa and the Observatorio Ciudadano are citizen's movements. The Observatorio Ciudadano is a "neighborhood watch" coalition where citizens like you and me work to ensure the private and public institutions fulfill their mandate. Mi Cometa and the Observatorio Cuidadano are an inspiration!

Yesterday, UUSC staff worked to respond to an urgent action request about the case of 14 peaceful protesters, students, municipal workers, community members, and men and women detained and tortured under an antiterrorism act in El Salvador on July 2. The protesters were demonstrating peacefully against the planned privatization of water services.

Today, we received a request for an urgent action to write about UUSC program partner the Mexican Coalition for the Right To Water (COMDA) and the International Habitat Coalition of Latin America (HIC AL), about human rights lawyer Santiago Perez Alvarado. Perez Alvarado was detained under kidnapping charges while on his way to file papers in a challenge to a large dam project that will divert the water resources of a rural community in the state of Mexico to Mexico City.

The feeling of cutting and pasting from one letter about El Salvador, to another about Mexico, was one of horror and foreboding. I can sense that we will be writing many of these letters until and unless we strongly support all efforts to defend the right to water. Cutting and pasting the content of an urgent letter to government officials about the violation of the civil and political rights of citizens concerned about their right to water.

How soon before we are called to mobilize for a Mexican Darfur in an indigenous region in Mexico because the water is being taken to Mexico City? Or for agribusiness ? I am not comfortable writing such personalized blog messages, nor alarmist ones, but I find myself not being able to take another tone, nor able any longer to read the screen.

The Natural Resources Defense Council released a report today on the impact of climate change on water resources in the western United States: In Hot Water - Water Management Strategies to Weather the Effects of Global Warming. The report guides water resource managers through analyzing water vulnerabilities, and putting into place policies and practices that will mitigate the impact of climate change to the extent possible.

The report is an excellent resource and required reading for communities as well. Learn about your water! We now need the social scientists and social justice advocates to look at this issue and report on how to ensure that each person have access to sufficient water to meet daily human needs. The right to water, in times of scarcity, should be a starting point for planning -- not a tag-on when the problems become acute in the midst of a crisis.

ENS today mentioned a new report on climate change impacts to the U.S. Northeast, done by a collaboration of scientists in the region. The report is called Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast: Science, Impacts, and Solutions.

According to the report, "The first scenario assumes an increase in global warming emissions from continued heavy reliance on fossil fuels, and the second assumes substantially lower emissions due to an increased reliance on clean energy sources. Global sea level is 'conservatively' projected to rise 10 to 23 inches under the higher-emissions scenario and 7 to 14 inches under the lower-emissions scenario. Using these estimates, cities such as Boston and Atlantic City can expect a coastal flood equivalent to today's 100-year flood every two to four years on average by mid-century and almost annually by the end of the century under either scenario."

The website has state summaries that project changes under two scenarios -- high emissions (business as usual) and lower emissions. For Massachusetts alone, the difference between the high and low emissions projections indicate we can avoid endemic droughts. The report says we can have an impact with reduction in emissions from the Northeast -- significant. Most of the northeastern states have legislation in place, and are debating more, that will require reductions. We each have responsibility for, and an impact on, the ability of each of us to enjoy our right to water by reducing our environmental impact, if we act now.

New Jersey enacted into legislation the Global Warming Response Act, becoming the third state to enact law that will require a reduction in green house gas emissions, after California and Hawaii. All three laws require the state to reduce its emissions to below 1990 levels by 2020. ENS reports that eight other states are debating similar legislation: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.

It took the tremendous efforts of community, faith-based, and union activists winning passage of minimum wage laws in six states for Congress to debate the federal minimum wage. How many states must pass this type of legislation for Congress to enact strict green house gas reductions targets? These emission reduction targets are critical in addressing the climate change crisis. The impacts wrought by climate change have begun and will severely impact water resources.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will publish a technical paper in November on water and climate change. Mitigating climate change with efforts like New Jersey's is essential -- 2 billion people know it. According to former Vice President Al Gore, more than 2 billion people participated in the LIVE EARTH concerts this past weekend. How many will it take? And how many more to enact legislation to enforce the right to water to ensure that even with climate change, everyone has access to safe, sufficient, affordable water for their daily needs? How many?