Investors Bet on Rising Costs for Scarce Water
Multi-national corporations already own the seeds from which comes our food, and the energy we need to power our lifes. It makes sense that they would make a play to control water, access to which is becoming dangerously scarce for many. Access to clean water and air is a basic human right. "According to United Nations estimates, one third of the world's population lives in areas with water shortages and 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water." The privitization of water will lead to huge disparities in access and consumption of this precious and absolutely necessary commodity. Once the mega-corps own our water we will all be their serfs. Water conservation depends upon ending inefficient uses, restoring hydrological systems, and guaranteeing access - and a whole bunch of other challenging policies truly adequate to achieve ecological sustainability such as reducing human population.
Comments
Many talk about wars for oil, but follow the water -- that's where future conflict lies. In fact, the recent Lebanon war was very much about water (http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1021/p08s01-wome.html or http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0926-08.htm), as are the battles over Israeli-Palestine borders. The recent flair-up in the civil war in Sri Lanka reportedly started over a conflict regarding irrigation.
Meanwhile, developers in the southwest US want to build a water pipeline from the Great Lakes so that they can keep developing in the desert. Great Lakes states are none too happy with the idea, along with our Canadian neighbors. But you can imagine the profits corporations like Bechtel might see in the proposal.
Wars for water and corporate control of water -- these are scary scenarios already beginning to be played out in the world.
The alternative would be to make rights to fresh water, water to live, a human right enshrined by international law. We must head in that direction quickly before corporations end up controlling our access to this most basic of human needs.
Margaret
Spirituality and Ecological Hope
Posted by: Margaret Swedish | September 19, 2006 10:00 PM