AlterNet.org
Thursday 11 October 2007
Thanks to global warming, pollution, population growth, and privatization, we are teetering on the edge of a global crisis.
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, the Hungarian biochemist and Nobel Prize winner for medicine once said, "Water is life's matter and matrix, mother and medium. There is no life without water."
We depend on water for survival. It circulates through our bodies and the land, replenishing nutrients and carrying away waste. It is passed down like stories over generations - from ice-capped mountains to rivers to oceans.
Historically water has been a facet of ritual, a place of gathering and the backbone of community.
But times have changed. "In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water has become the victim of his indifference," Rachel Carson wrote.
As a result, today, 35 years since the passage of the Clean Water Act, we find ourselves are teetering on the edge of a global crisis that is being exacerbated by climate change, which is shrinking glaciers and raising sea levels.
We are faced with thoughtless development that paves flood plains and destroys wetlands; dams that displace native people and scar watersheds; unchecked industrial growth that pollutes water sources; and rising rates of consumption that nature can't match. Increasingly, we are also threatened by the wave of privatization that is sweeping across the world, turning water from a precious public resource into a commodity for economic gain.
The problems extend from the global north to the south and are as pervasive as water itself. Equally encompassing are the politics of water. Discussions about our water crisis include issues like poverty, trade, community and privatization. In talking about water, we must also talk about indigenous rights, environmental justice, education, corporate accountability, and democracy. In this mix of terms are not only the causes of our crisis but also the solutions.
What's Gone Wrong?
As our world heats up, as pollution increases, as population grows and as our globe's resources of fresh water are tapped, we are faced with an environmental and humanitarian problem of mammoth proportions.
Demand for water is doubling every 20 years, outpacing population growth twice as fast. Currently 1.3 billion people don't have access to clean water and 2.5 billion lack proper sewage and sanitation. In less than 20 years, it is estimated that demand for fresh water will exceed the world's supply by over 50 percent.
The biggest drain on our water sources is agriculture, which accounts for 70 percent of the water used worldwide - much of which is subsidized in the industrial world, providing little incentive for agribusiness to use conservation measures or less water-intensive crops.
This number is also likely to increase as we struggle to feed a growing world. Population is expected to rise from 6 billion to 8 billion by 2050.
Water scarcity is not just an issue of the developing world. "Twenty-one percent of irrigation in the United States is achieved by pumping groundwater at rates that exceed the water's ability to recharge," wrote water experts Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute and Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians in their landmark water book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water.
The Ogallala aquifer - the largest in the North America and a major source for agriculture stretching from Texas to South Dakota - is currently being pumped at a rate 14 times greater than it can be replenished, they wrote. And, across the country, "California's Department of Water Resources predicts that, by 2020, if more supplies are not found, the state will face a shortfall of fresh water nearly as great as the amount that all of its cities and towns together are consuming today," add Clarke and Barlow.
Demand is outstripping supply from the rainy Seattle area to desert cities like Tucson and Albuquerque. And from Midwest farming regions to East Coast cities.
The crisis is also worldwide, most noticeable in Mexico, the Middle East, China and Africa.
As population growth, development, consumption and pollution take its toll on our water resources, the ability to fight this problem has been further complicated by the spread of neoliberalism. The same ideas that have resulted in the booty of private contracts being doled out in Iraq also have contributed greatly to our water crisis. Neoliberalism is the belief in "economic liberalism," which espoused that government control over the economy was bad. It opened up the commons to commodification and let corporations privatize what once belonged to the public.
In 2000 Fortune magazine printed this telling statement: "Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century; the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations."
It has oft been expressed that the next resource wars will not be over oil - or energy at all - but over water. As the idea of neoliberalism, proliferated by institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, spread, the public sector has become dangerously privatized. And it may not be the wealth of nations on the line - but the wealth of corporations.
A senior executive at a subsidiary of Vivendi, the world's largest water controller summed it up, "Water is a critical and necessary ingredient to the daily life of every human being, and it is an equally powerful ingredient for profitable manufacturing companies."
But when private companies control water resources, people's needs for survival are pushed aside in place of the bottom line. In Africa, an estimated 5 million people die each year for lack of safe drinking water. And yet Africa, with its many cash-strapped countries, is targeted by multinationals that force governments to turn over their public water systems in exchange for promises of debt relief.
When corporations control water, rates go up, services go down, and those who can't afford to pay are forced to drink unsafe water, risking their lives. This has happened across the world - in South Africa, in Bolivia, in the United States.
This same philosophy of corporate control drives the construction of dams, which have displaced an estimated 80 million people worldwide. In India alone, over 4,000 dams have submerged 37,500 square kilometers of land and forced 42 million people from their homes.
Multinationals looking to cash in on the water business have also made giant inroads in selling bottled water in richer countries. Expensive marketing campaigns convince people that their tap water is unsafe to drink. Then, companies like Coke and Pepsi bottle municipal tap water and others like Nestle pilfer spring water from rural communities and resell it at huge profits.
The water crisis may be growing, but so is resistance to privatization as communities are fighting back against the corporate control of the world's most vital resource.
How We Can Fix It
We need water to survive, not just as individuals, but as communities. Author John Thorson put it perfectly when he said, "Water links us to our neighbor in a way more profound and complex than any other."
Just ask the people of the Klamath Basin of Southern Oregon and Northern California. They've experienced water wars for the last hundred years that have pitted neighbor against neighbor and tribal member against farmer.
Native American tribes in the region - the Klamath, Hoopa, Karuk, and Yaruk - with priority rights to water, have struggled with farmers over limited water resources. Nature has been unable to deliver as much water as the government has promised to farmers and tribal members, as well as downstream fishermen. With not enough water in the river, either crops have failed or fish have died, creating community strife and economic hardship.
But in the last year, things have begun to change. These groups have formed a coalition to save the river they all depend on for survival. They are sitting at the same table and finally beginning to hear from each other about the needs of farmers, the value of subsistence economies, the history of families on the river, the ceremony that comes with the salmon runs, the rights of nature.
Together, this unlikely alliance is taking on PacifiCorp, one of the largest multinational power companies, whose out-of-date dams are threatening the ecosystem and the economy of the region.
And just over the peak of Mount Shasta another community and tribe are battling to save their spring water from Nestle, which hopes to tap the community's greatest asset for its own wealth.
The people of the small town of McCloud and the Winnemem Wintu tribe are fighting back, and they are not alone. Across the country a backlash to the bottled-water business is gaining steam. Fancy restaurants like California's Chez Panisse, Incanto, and Poggio and New York's Del Posto have gotten on board. San Francisco has also led the way among municipalities that are beginning to cancel their bottled water contracts, understanding the great harm the industry does to the environment and communities.
It is not just bottled water that has posed a problem, but private companies buying out municipal water systems and then raising rates and lowering services. One the best examples is Stockton, Calif., which went private in the largest "public-private partnership" in the West. Since 2001 the people of Stockton have been fighting for control of their water against a multinational consortium.
The case gained international attention when it was featured in the film and book Thirst: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water. The public finally won out in July, when the city council voted to get rid of the 20-year contract and send the corporation packing.
The citizen groups that have been working to defend their communities are being supported by many national and international groups pushing back against corporate control and empowering people - groups like Tony Clarke's Polaris Institute in Canada, which has focused on public education and research around issues like the privatization of water services, bulk water exports, water security and bottled water.
In the United States, Corporate Accountability International is encouraging people to drink tap water over bottled water with their "Think Outside the Bottle Campaign." They are working to educate the public, as well as city governments and businesses, with great success.
And today, on the 35th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, Food & Water Watch, is sponsoring a National Call-In Day for action on clean water to urge representatives to support the creation of a clean water trust fund, "which is a long-term, sustainable, and reliable source of funding to upgrade and improve our public water systems." The organization has been working to protect public water systems from private takeover and to help fund municipal water so that all residents have clean, safe and affordable water.
The movement extends across the country and the world as people are also rebelling against the corporate takeover of their municipal water systems - in California, in Ghana, in Brazil, in Canada, in France, in Indonesia - and the list goes on.
Opposition to corporate control is rooted in the belief that water is part of the commons. Everyone should have access to clean water, regardless of their level of income or their country's international standing.
In order to ensure that all people have access to clean, affordable water, we need to make some changes.
Some see technology as the necessary fix - or at least a step in the right direction. As the BBC reports:
New technology can help, however, especially by cleaning up pollution and so making more water useable, and in agriculture, where water use can be made far more efficient. Drought-resistant plants can also help.Drip irrigation drastically cuts the amount of water needed, low-pressure sprinklers are an improvement, and even building simple earth walls to trap rainfall is helpful.
Some countries are now treating waste water so that it can be used - and drunk - several times over.
Desalinization makes sea water available, but takes huge quantities of energy and leaves vast amounts of brine.
But many warn against relying on a "techno-fix" to solve our problems.
Water experts argue that we need to reduce consumption on individual and community levels. Author Tony Clarke advises working with those closest to the problems, such as helping farmers to develop a more sustainable agriculture system. And the same goes for industry. Looking to the folks who have been on the land longest, like indigenous and traditional cultures, will also help us learn how an ecosystem works.
And experts say that we also need to start developing a comprehensive water policy that goes from the regional to international level. The World Bank and United Nations have the capability to change the designation of water from a human need to a human right, ensuring that corporations can't exploit this resource for economic gain, as Clarke and Barlow advocate for in Blue Gold.
Governments should be investing in their people, in conservation and in the infrastructure that we depend on to access clean, affordable water.
It ultimately comes down to an issue of democracy. "We came to see that the conflicts over water are really about fundamental questions of democracy itself: Who will make the decisions that affect our future, and who will be excluded?" wrote Alan Snitow, Deborah Kaufman and Michael Fox in their recent book Thirst. "And if citizens no longer control their most basic resource, their water, do they really control anything at all?"
Egypt: After Summer Shortages, Promise of Water Runs Dry
By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
Inter Press Service
Thursday 11 October 2007
Cairo - This summer saw a spate of severe water shortages throughout the country, leading to numerous protests by frustrated - and thirsty - citizens. Egypt has seen its share of political demonstrations in recent years, but the latest water protests are the first time that ordinary people have taken to the streets to demand a basic service.
"The recent demonstrations show that citizens have lost faith in longstanding government promises to provide them with adequate drinking water," Mohamed Nagi, head of the Cairo-based Habi Centre for Environmental Rights, told IPS. "Until now, very little has really been accomplished to solve the water scarcity problem, which grows worse every year."
The issue first exploded in early July, when hundreds of residents of the Nile Delta's Kafr al-Sheikh province, frustrated by months-long water shortages, blocked a nearby highway for several hours. According to reports in the local press, angry protestors brought traffic to a standstill, demanding clean drinking water for their villages and households.
Only a few days later, another protest - this time an estimated 3,000-strong - was held by residents of the Gharbiya province, also in the Nile Delta. According to official daily al-Ahram, the crisis in Gharbiya ended on Jul. 10 with the government dispatching a number of water-laden trucks to the area as a "temporary solution".
According to Nagi, the breakdown of state-run water distribution networks is an all too common problem.
"Water purification projects often cease functioning for long periods due to under-funding by the state, and official neglect," he said. Nagi went on to attribute the increasing cases of water deficiency to provincial corruption, insufficient planning and slapdash construction.
"Meanwhile, those who suffer most from shortages of drinking water are those of the lowest-income classes, who don't have much political voice," he added.
After continued reports of shortages throughout the country, President Hosni Mubarak called on the cabinet to launch an "urgent plan" to ensure that all Egyptians enjoy sufficient access to potable water. On Jul. 25, the cabinet announced that a total of 1 billion Egyptian pounds (180 million dollars) would be allocated to construction of small water purification centres in and around shortage prone areas.
Nevertheless, the following months saw similar protests in several other areas of the country where local water distribution networks have functioned erratically for months or years. During July, August and September, popular demonstrations - many joined by thousands - were reported in the provinces of Alexandria, Giza and Marsa Matruh, among others.
Dubbing the protests a "revolution of the thirsty", the local press - both official and independent - carried headline news throughout the summer about the ongoing shortages. Newspapers often featured front-page pictures of citizens frantically queuing for meagre water rations, or angrily shaking empty water cans.
In early August, al-Ahram cited a study by the Cairo-based Centre for Rural Studies that found that an estimated five million Egyptians - in a population of 80 million - lack sufficient access to clean drinking water. Shortly afterwards, independent daily al-Masry al-Youm cited a survey by the state-run National Research Centre that found that 85 percent of Egypt's total potable water production was wasted due to the poor state of local water distribution systems.
In spite of these dire findings, housing minister Ahmed al-Maghrebi was quoted by the local press in early August as saying that Egypt was "not suffering from a water-shortage crisis."
Amid increasing numbers of popular protests and complaints, however, the minister was soon moved to revise his statement. In an Aug. 26 interview on Arabic language satellite TV station Dream, he conceded that "popular protests over the lack of water come as no surprise."
Maghrebi also announced he had secured cabinet and parliamentary approval to allocate 17 billion Egyptian pounds (3.1 billion dollars) over the next four years for upgrading local water distribution networks. He said 100 local water projects across Egypt were scheduled for completion within the 2007/2008 fiscal year.
Earlier this month, the cabinet also approved a housing ministry request to increase the amount earmarked for the President's "urgent plan" for the construction of water-purification plants from 1 billion to 1.5 billion Egyptian pounds.
According to Nagi, however, recent government pledges to provide short-term solutions to the problem - especially in light of earlier unfulfilled promises - simply don't hold water.
"The housing minister says we need four years for completion of the necessary water projects," he said. "But this belies earlier statements by (previous housing minister) Ibrahim Suleiman, who said it would only take two years to guarantee water to every corner of Egypt. And Suleiman made those statements four years ago."
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