Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” uses “brute force” to blast open oil, gas and coal formations with highly pressurized chemical fluids or gases. It is the subject of serious government investigations throughout North America.
In 2002, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment held a Linking Water Science to Policy Workshop. The workshop report concluded that unconventional natural gas drilling posed a real threat to groundwater quality and quantity, and that the nation needs “baseline hydrogeological investigations…to be able to recognize and track groundwater contaminants.”
Now that the human right to water has been officially recognized by the UN General Assembly, and De Albuquerque has determined that fracking could further imperil the human right to water in the U.S., UNANIMA believes that all states should stand behind a commitment to safeguard this right to our precious water and ban fracking.
In an assessment of the situation in the U.S., De Albuquerque reported on water contamination found there from fracking and recommended “a holistic consideration of the right to water by factoring it into policies having an impact on water quality, ranging from agriculture to chemical use in products to energy production activities.”