Water export

[4] But even that can be controversial – the multinational food giant Nestlé was accused of attempting to "drain" the town of Hillsburgh, Ontario, of its water in 2012 and 2013, during a drought.

Many states in the US have experienced water shortages in the past few decades, creating a market for freshwater that could be profitable for Canada.

In the south-western US, growing populations and lifestyles that consume large amounts of water have caused most of the aquifers and rivers in the region to be overused.

[6] In early 2014, Gary Doer, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, said that by 2020 the pressure on water quality and quantity would be immense.

He predicted that water debates and disputes between the two countries would make the clash over the Keystone XL pipeline "look silly" by comparison.

[4] Large-scale removal of water from lakes would negatively affect their ecosystems, increasing pollution concentrations and harming plant and animal communities.

Not surprisingly, proposals for large-scale transfer of water from the Ob River in Siberia to the Aral Sea basin in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have been seriously considered by the Soviet federal government already in the 1960-80s, when all republics involved were members of the USSR.

While welcomed by many in Central Asian republics, the project received severe criticism from many scientists as well as prominent writers and journalists in Russia, such as Valentin Rasputin and Sergey Zalygin, sometimes known collectively as the "Siberian environmental lobby"[11] Afghanistan is also somewhat included with 9.36% of its rate paying for the water exports.

Shelved in 1986 for both economical and environmental reasons,[12] the idea of international water transfers has been raised again in the 21st century in the ruling circles of the now independent states.

[citation needed] The canals that would have to be constructed to transfer water require huge investment and operation costs.

Whether or not pressures for large-scale water exports continues to increase depends mostly on future advances in desalination technology.