Thirsty for Justice: The Struggle for the Human Right to Water in
California and Beyond
Topic: Thirsty for Justice: The Struggle for the
Human Right to Water in California and Beyond
Speakers: Colin Bailey, Executive Director,
Environmental Justice Coalition for Water
When: Friday, September 28th, 2018, 12 p.m.–1
p.m.
Where: University Library, 2000 State
University Drive, Library 11
Map
Topic Overview
In the richest nation on earth and in the wealthiest state in the nation,
how can a million or more people lack reliable access to safe, clean,
and affordable water for their basic human needs?
How did we get here and how can we ensure everyone has access to
sufficient water for drinking, cooking, sanitation, and personal
hygiene?
What can we do to address the water-related impacts of climate change,
including drought, flood, sea level rise, fire, and strain on
ecosystems?
Colin Bailey, executive director of the Environmental Justice Coalition
for Water, will discuss these questions and share stories about
individuals whose personal health and human dignity are affected by
limited or no access to safe, clean, and affordable water. He will also
discuss the historic grassroots movement that made the human right to
water the law of the land in California and the ongoing work to make
that right a reality in California and beyond.
About the Speaker
Colin Bailey is the executive director of the
Environmental Justice Coalition for Water (EJCW). An
accomplished social justice attorney, Colin supports
EJCW’s statewide policy agenda, local and regional
programs, and grassroots member organizations. Building upon
California’s historic adoption of the Human Right to Water
policy in 2012 (CA AB 685), EJCW supports the grassroots effort
to implement and enforce this mandate statewide.
Colin received his J.D. from UCLA School of Law, with a
certificate from the Public Interest Law and Policy Program and
the Critical Race Studies Program.
As a legal aid attorney, Colin served as lead counsel for a
community coalition that, after a five-year campaign, defeated a
proposal to construct an underground natural gas storage
facility that threatened to cause massive explosions/fires and
to contaminate the groundwater in a low-income community of
color in South Sacramento in 2012.
Colin serves on several advisory committees for various state
agencies and academic institutions. He was appointed to the
California Air Resources Board’s AB32 Environmental
Justice Advisory Committee and the Department of Water
Resources’ California Water Plan Update 2018 Policy
Advisory Committee. Before that, he served on the California
Water Commission’s Water Storage Investment Program
Stakeholder Advisory Committee, the Department of Water
Resources’ Proposition 1 Integrated Regional Water
Management Community Stakeholder Engagement Advisory Committee,
and the Environmental Justice/Disadvantaged Community Advisory
Group for the California State Water Plan 2013 Update.
