NEGEF News: September/October 2009        the water issue

Extra! Extra! Important Upcoming Dates

10/3/09: 2009 Grassroots Retreat Registration for the retreat is now open to all members of NEGEF grantee groups. A day of fun, networking and skills-building. Choose from 1 of 3 workshop tracks: Sustain, Grow & Lead. Bring more members and save!
COST: $30 for 1, $55 for 2, $75 for 3.
CLICK HERE to register

9/15/09: Upcoming Small Grants Deadline
NEGEF Small Grants range in size from $500-$2500.
CLICK HERE to apply

9/23/09: For Funders: Briefing on Grassroots Grantmaking
NEGEF is a Grassroots/Funders collaborative that supports community groups, learns from them, and shares grassroots knowledge with the philanthropy community. On WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23rd, NEGEF and the national network of Grassroots Grantmakers will host the first briefing for all wanting to learn more about funding local environmental and sustainable community work in the region. Each briefing will focus on 1 of 6 issue portals.
CLICK HERE for more info

Brewer's Festival Goes Bottle-less

For the first time in the event's 17 years of history, the Annual Brewers Festival in Burlington, VT went bottle-less on the weekend of July 17th. As experienced Brew-Festival-Aficionados know, for each oz. of beer, an oz. of water should be consumed. Paying homage to Vermont's cultural background, the Festival organizers, working with Food and Water Watch Representatives, came up with the solution of using an old milk truck, complete with a 6-tap water spigot, to supply festival goers with fresh H2O. With attendance surpassing 10,000 people, volunteers in charge of clean-up after the event noted how much trash was reduced in comparison to previous years. For more about how to make your own events bottle-less, click here.

Water in the Public Trust: Quality and Quantity

Water in the Public Trust is one of NEGEF's 6 issue portals. Traditionally, grassroots water activists have organized around water quality. Many volunteer groups continue to work through watershed associations, directing public attention to pollution sources and offering solutions to keep our rivers, lakes and streams clean. More recently, water quantity and water access issues have become the focus of global concern. In water-rich New England, there is a growing awareness that both water extraction and privatization threaten the balance between two competing needs: water in the public trust – our common ownership of this resource – and the public’s desire for products that require large quantities of water to produce.

For Grassroots Resources on Water, click here

Australians Ban Bottled Water

Early in July, residents in Bundanoon Austrailia overwhelmingly supported the first ever ban on commercially bottled water, already agreed to by businesses in the town. Over 400 townspeople showed up for the vote, with only two casting dissenting votes. Free water fountains will be installed in the village to replace the bottled H2O.

Read the Article from www.news.com

Rights to Nature: ME Voters Give Rights to Water

The small town of Shapleigh, ME, passed an unusual ordinance last March to protect its water supply from the Nestle Corporation (aka Poland Spring bottled water). The ordinance, drafted by NEGEF grantee POWWR, which passed 114-66, endows all of the town’s natural assets with legal rights, thereby protecting the water supply from corporate development or ownership. The trend is catching on; nearby Newfield residents enacted a similar ordinance by a vote of 228 to 146, yet in some towns this approach has seen less success.

Read the Boston Globe's article on the rights of nature

Read the Shapleigh Ordinance on POWWR's website

            www.grassrootsfund.org

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