A recipient of Sweden's Right Livelihood Award (the "Alternative Nobel") and a Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship, Maude Barlow is head of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy organisation, and founder of the Blue Planet Project. She is the author of sixteen books, including Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water and Blue Gold - published in over fifty countries - and is on the board of Food and Water Watch and the International Forum on Globalisation. She was recently appointed as the first Senior Advisor on water issues to the current President of the UN General Assembly, Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.