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dam-l New water report/LS
The following is from the web site http://www.ifg.org/bgsummary.html
For more information, contact IFG by email: ifg@ifg.org, phone:
415.771.3394, fax: 415.771.1102.
Report Summary
BLUE GOLD
THE GLOBAL WATER CRISIS AND THE
COMMODIFICATION OF THE WORLD'S WATER SUPPLY
By Maude Barlow
Chair, IFG Committee on the Globalization of Water
National Chair, Council of Canadians
June 1999
A Special Report (46 pp)
Produced and Published by
the International Forum on Globalization (IFG)
"The wars of the next century will be about water."
- The World Bank
REPORT SUMMARY
We'd like to believe there's an infinite supply of fresh water on the
planet. But the assumption is tragically false. Available fresh water
amounts to less than one half of one percent of all the water on Earth. The
rest is sea water, or is frozen in the polar ice. Fresh water is renewable
only by rainfall, at the rate of 40-50,000 cubic km per year.
Global consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the
rate of human population growth. According to the United Nations, more than
one billion people on Earth already lack access to fresh drinking water. If
current trends persist, by 2025 the demand for fresh water is expected to
rise by 56 percent more than is currently
available.
As the water crisis intensifies, governments around the world - under
pressure from multinational corporations - are advocating a radical
solution: the commodification and mass transport of water. Proponents of
commodification, and subsequent privatization, say that such a system is
the only way to distribute water to the world's thirsty. But, in fact,
experience shows that selling water on the open market does not address the
needs of poor, thirsty people. On the contrary, privatized water is
delivered to those who can pay for it, such as wealthy cities and
individuals and water intensive industries such as agriculture and
high-tech. As one resident of the high desert in New Mexico observed after
his community's water was diverted for use by the high-tech industry:
"Water flows uphill to money."
The push to commodify water comes at a time when the social, political and
economic impacts of water scarcity are rapidly becoming a destabilizing
force, with water-related conflicts springing up around the globe. For
example, Malaysia, which supplies about half of Singapore's water,
threatened to cut off that supply in 1997 after Singapore criticized its
government policies. In Africa, relations between Botswana and Namibia have
been severely strained by Namibian plans to construct a pipeline to divert
water from the shared Okavango River to eastern Namibia. Much has
been written about the potential for water wars in the Middle East, where
water resources are severely limited. The late King Hussein of Jordan once
said the only thing he would go to war with Israel over was water because
Israel controls Jordan's water supply.
Meanwhile, the future of one of the earth's most vital resources is being
determined by those who profit from its overuse and abuse. At the annual
World Economic Development Congress, which follows the annual International
Monetary Fund/World Bank meeting, corporations and financial institutions
met with government representatives from more than 84 countries to attend
panels on such subjects as "Overcoming Obstacles to Water Investment" and
"Navigating Transparency and Banking Regulation in Emerging Capital
Markets." The agenda was clear: water should be treated like any other
tradable good, with its use determined by market principles.
At the same time, governments are signing away their control over domestic
water supplies by participating in trade treaties such as the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and institutions such as the World
Trade Organization (WTO). These agreements effectively give transnational
corporations the unprecedented right to the water of signatory countries.
Already, corporations have started to sue governments in order to gain
access to domestic water sources. For example, Sun Belt, a California
company, is suing the government of Canada under NAFTA because British
Columbia (B.C.) banned water exports several years ago. The company claims
that B.C.'s law violates several NAFTA-based investor rights and therefore
is claiming US$220 million in compensation for lost profits.
With the protection of these international trade agreements, companies are
setting their sights on the mass transport of bulk water by diversion and
by super tanker. Several companies are developing technology whereby large
quantities of fresh water would be loaded into huge sealed bags and towed
across the ocean for sale.
The U.S. Global Water Corporation, a Canadian company, is one of those
seeking to be a major player in the water trade. It has signed an agreement
with Sitka, Alaska, to export 18 billion gallons per year of glacier water
to China where it will be bottled in one of that country's "free trade"
zones to take advantage of cheap labor. The company brochure entices
investors "to harvest the accelerating opportunity...as traditional sources
of water around the world become progressively depleted and degraded."
Selling water to the highest bidder will only exacerbate the worst impacts
of the world water crisis.
Social Inequity
In India, some households pay a staggering 25 percent of their income
on water.
Poor residents of Lima, Peru, pay private vendors as much as $3 for a
cubic meter for buckets of often-contaminated water while the more affluent
pay 30 cents per cubic meter for treated municipal tap water.
In the maquiladora zones of Mexico, water is so scarce that babies
and children drink Coca-Cola and Pepsi instead.
Disease
More than five million people, most of them children, die every year
from illnesses caused by drinking poor-quality water.
Food Insecurity
China is facing the likelihood of severe grain shortages because of
water depletion and the current shift of limited water resources from
agriculture to industry and cities. The resulting demand for grain in China
could exceed the world's available exportable supply.
During a drought crisis in northern Mexico in 1995, the government
cut water supplies to local farmers while ensuring emergency supplies to
the mostly foreign-controlled industries of the region.
Environmental Destruction
Around the world, the answer to the increase in water demand has been
to build more environmentally destructive dams and divert more rivers. The
number of large dams worldwide has climbed from just over 5,000 in 1950 to
38,000 today.
In the U.S., only 2 percent of the country's rivers and wetlands
remain free-flowing and undeveloped; as a result, the country has lost more
than half of its wetlands.
Eighty percent of China's major rivers are so degraded they no longer
support fish.
In the U.S., the epicenter of freshwater diversity in the world, 37
percent of freshwater fish are at risk of extinction, 50 percent of
crayfish and 40 percent of amphibians are imperiled, and 67 percent of
freshwater mussels are extinct or vulnerable to extinction.
In the Great Lakes system, the Nature Conservancy has identified 100
species and 31 ecological communities at risk
A number of key research and environmental organizations such as Worldwatch
Institute, World Resources Institute and the United Nations Environment
Program have been sounding the alarm for well over a decade: If water usage
continues to increase at current rates, the results will be devastating for
the earth and its inhabitants. Groups such as the International Rivers
Network, Greenpeace, Clean Waters Network, Sierra Club and Friends of the
Earth International, along with thousands of community groups around the
world, are fighting the construction of new dams, reclaiming damaged rivers
and wetlands, confronting industry over contamination of water systems, and
protecting whales and other aquatic species from hunting and overfishing.
In a number of countries, experts have come up with some exciting and
creative solutions to these problems.
This work is crucial, yet such efforts need to be coordinated and
understood in the broader context of economic globalization and its role in
promoting privatization and commodification.
The Blue Gold report addresses the following issues: Who owns water? Should
anyone? Should it be privatized? What rights do transnational corporations
have to buy water systems? Should it be traded as a commodity in the open
market? What laws do we need to protect water? What is the role of
government? How do we share water in water-rich countries with those in
water-poor countries? Who is the custodian for nature's lifeblood? How do
ordinary citizens become involved in this process?
As Georg Wurmitzer, mayor of the small town of Simitz in the Austrian Alps,
states: "It is a sacred duty to help someone who is suffering from thirst.
However, it is a sin to transfer water just so that people can flush their
toilets and wash their cars in dry areas...It makes no sense and is
ecological and economic madness."
* * *
The next World Water Forum is being held in The Hague in March 2000.
Chaired by World Bank Vice President Ismail Serageldin, this meeting is
part of the continuing activities of the World Water Council, formed by
governments, international agencies, and private sector in 1997 after the
first World Water Forum held in Marrakesh, Morocco.
The World Water Council has formed various partnerships with private
corporations including the Global Water Partnership and Business Partners
for Development. The web sites and reports of these organizations make it
clear that some of the largest water privateers are taking the lead in
developing water policies of international organizations and governments.
Instead of allowing this vital resource to become a commodity sold to the
highest bidder, this report advocates that access to clean water for basic
needs is a fundamental human right. Each generation must ensure that the
abundance and quality of water is not diminished as a result of its
activities. Greater efforts must be made to restore the health of aquatic
ecosystems that have already been degraded as well as to protect others
from harm. We believe that the following ten principles will help to
protect water:
1) Water belongs to the earth and all species
2) Water should be left where it is wherever possible
3) Water must be conserved for all time
4) Polluted water must be reclaimed
5) Water is best protected in natural watersheds
6) Water is a public trust to be guarded at all levels of government
7)An adequate supply of clean water is a basic human right
8)The best advocates for water are local communities and citizens
9)The public must participate as an equal partner with government to
protect water
10) Economic globalization policies are not water sustainable
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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