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dam-l World Water Forum critique from India/LS
NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN
ORGANIZATIONS REJECT PRIVATIZATION OF WATER, HAGUE DECLARATION: ASSERT
COMMON OWNERSHIP
Demand to remove the Water From WTO Agenda
While demanding that the water and water services must be removed from the
General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) and the agenda of the World
Trade Organization (WTO), number of representatives of people's
organization from all over the world have declared their opposition to the
attempts to privatize and corporatise the water resources. They rejected
the " manifest and latent agenda " of the World Water Forum, held in the
Hague, Netherlands from March 17 to 22. Narmada Bachao Andolan and National
Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) was represented in the Hague by Medha
Patkar and number of other activists. The entire conference and the 'vision
document' of the conference failed to incorporate the challenges by
people's movements to the coporatisation and privatization of water.
The organisations termed the entire exercise of the water conference being
masterminded by the government and corporate forces. " The process is
dominated by technocratic and top-down thinking, resulting in documents
which emphasize a corporate vision of privatization, large-scale
investments and biotechnology as the key answers. The process gives
insufficient emphasis and recognition of the rights, knowledge and
experience of' local people and communities and the need to manage water in
ways that protect natural ecosystems, the source the source of all water".
The World Water Forum at Hague, Netherlands held from 17th to 22nd of
March, was a major event, attended by more than 3000 participants -
official delegates of various governments across the world, representatives
of NGOs and people's organisations, trade unions in water sector, academics
and activists in the field of water and hydro-power. The 'Jamboree' was a
result of last 1 1/2 years work by the World Water Council that held the
first Water Forum in Morocco, in 1997 and worked across the world since then.
The Forum, began with a protest by the activists against the Itoiz dam in
Spain, who didn't allow the inagural session and the vice-president of the
World Bank Mr.Ismail Serageldin to speak. The Forum, however, was seen by
most of the people's organisations by the Private Investors, the Corporate
sector across the world along with the lending agencies - bilateral and
multilateral, including the World Bank. Their agenda was obvious. After the
privatization of power and forests, these forces have been eyeing for the
commodification and marketing of water. Water, a life-support, has to now
be brought to market, link with 'money', changing culture, laws and
technology at any cost. The presentation by the mainstream speakers as also
the draft reports circulated termed 'World Water Vision' and 'Framework of
Action' indicated this and hence very strongly questioned by the civil
society groups.
People's organisations, trade unions and most of the NGOs working on the
issues related to large dams, issued a joint statement rejecting the
reports as not only the process had excluded the real mass-based
organisations who question globalisation-liberalisation policies but also
since the reports didn't clearly recommend and support the people's right
to water resources and community-based decentralised, self-reliant water
management. Equality, sustainability and justice, participation and
democracy was a part of the rhetorical language used in the reports as well
as all sessions but the conclusion and action-framework is more biased in
favour of foreign aid and investment that anything else, they felt.
The Indian conflicts emerged and became known to the Forum participants
beginning from the day one. The ministers attending were Mr.C.P.Thakur,
Union Minister for Water Resources, Mr.Hassan, Secretary, Ministry of Water
Resources, Mr.Y.K.Alag, ex-Union Minister of Power, Mr.Jainarayan Vyas,
Minister for Narmada, Gujarat and Digvijay Singh, Chief Minister of Madhya
Pradesh. They were confronted and questioned by the activist participants.
It was interesting to hear the Indian policy-makers and planners at the
international forum. While some like Thakur and Digvijay Singh were on the
defensive, they appeared 'confused'. In a session organised by the World
Commission on Dams, Thakur expressed his anxiety about anti-dam elements at
the conference and said his govt. through special intervention by the Prime
Minister, has now taken a decision, appointed a committee to formulate a
rehabilitation policy. "Why is it being done after 50 years of independence
and decades of people's struggle", a World Bank official who has worked
extensively in Indian situation asked him publicly, adding, "I am now made
to see that dams many a times are built for money". Digvijay Singh,
however, was invited as a 'reforming politician' who didn't utter a word
about the conflict over big dams but rather projected his government as
only for small, watershed development projects. His claim that Jhabua, Dhar
and Ratlam districts are now transformed with tribal migration much
reduced, liquor problem resolved through women's empowerment and newly
created water resources transferred into the hands of the village
communities, couldn't have stood the test on any Indian platform. When
questioned on Narmada, he pleaded, he had inherited big dams and doesn't
intend to have any more big dams. But his concluding remarks were
remarkable and quotable. "Water", he said, "belongs to people. Community
should have ownership right to water. No privatisation should occur without
community's consent." Believe him or not, as executor of the principles,
this is the very 'mantra' approved by people's organisations to counter
distorted priorities, unjust displacement and destruction of nature caused
by snatching away water from people.
Vyas and Alagh were outrightly for the established practices, pushing ahead
water policy and plans. Vyas converted his session on 'Water and Energy'
into one on Gujarat and Narmada but was caught propagating falsehood.
Tribals in the Sardar Sarovar affected region, he said, are migrants for
large part of the year and stay at home in the valley and the forest, only
for 4/5 months a year. He could not answer the counter-argument that there
is hardly any migration from tribal villages in the Narmada Valley as
against others near roadside as established through social scientists'
reports. Well equipped with visuals and transparencies the minister
overstated the water crisis of Kutch-Saurashtra not referring to the on
going controversy in Gujarat over the Chief Minister's statement that
Sardar Sarovar Project waters will not benefit Saurashtra (hence an
alternative, equally big or bigger scheme of 'Kalpasar'). When questioned
on the large magnitude of water available in the drought areas to be tapped
by the communities as is already being done effectively by local
organisations, he avoided a clear answer.
Arundhati Roy was at the forefront in questioning the Indian officials and
their claims on Maheshwar and other dams. Jharana Jhaveri, with film as a
weapon, exposed the plight of the Bargi dam-oustees and the State as the
culprit. Both were effective with their empirical data and emotional
commitment. Government of Gujarat had come with a film to counter
anti-Sardar Sarovar film by Anand Patwardhan. In a special session against
privatisaton of water sector Medha Patkar and Vijay Paranjapye argued
forcefully in favour of 'power to people' as the precondition to attain
'water to people' or 'water security' while on a session on 'water and
ethics' Patkar asserted water for public good, community rights to self
determination and development planning, against unethical and unjust
usurpation of water resources by a rich consumerist minority
Presentation by empowered women of SEWA on their successful project in
Kutch-Saurashtra in another session, established people's role. Another
grass root organization Utthan in Ahmedabad district led by Nafeesa Barot,
performed a play conveying social-economic and ecological inequities in
water aggravated by deforestation and large dams, suggesting
people-oriented alternatives. The alternatives too were present in a
session organised by Center for Science and Environment. Sincere commitment
to the people-oriented schemes and proven success got conveyed effectively
by Anna Hazare and Rajendra Singh.
Mr.Y.K.Alagh, on food security was heard by many supporting decentralised
land and water management for the first time. He and his partner on the
panel Mr.Ramesh Bhatia clearly advocated private companies and investment.
For India, "water is no problem", they stressed, "problem is, we have no
money". Their target thus is the non-conventional, so-called 'alternative'
technology and projects which now opens up a new market for the private
investors who may not continue with large dams anymore. Power targets were
brought to the Forum by Mr.Bhatia selling Kumaramangalam's ideas and plans.
His targets of course were such as would require to build one Sardar
Sarovar and one Maheshwar every year. The social-environmental costs were
obviously not a concern. " This is neither a people's plan nor are the
common people in South Asia going to allow you to swim on this 'devastative
tide of progress' for a long", warned the activists and researchers from
India and Nepal - Ajay Dixit, Deepak Goalia and others, there itself.
The message of the Forum was, however, clear. Albeit the market forces are
all out to capture 'water', a wide range of people's organisations are
allying together (environmentalists to trade unionists) to reject them at
every forum. While we watch every stream, river and dam, we have to watch
global power-holders as Mr.Clinton, the MNCs along with Indian rulers and
capitalists, and their partners like the World Bank and the WTO.
relentless struggle has to be pursued to protect interests of the poor from
the power-holders' designs and to usher in self reliant ways and means
towards alternatives in water and energy.
(Sanjay Sangvai)
Narmada Bachao Andolan
==========
NGO Major Group Statement to the Ministerial Conference
21st March 2000, The Hague
The organisations do not accept the statement in the World Water
Conference and the statement of the World Water Vision.
We express serious concerns about the process and contents to date of' the
Framework of' Action. Although there are some positive action points and
recommendations, such as community-based rights, the mechanisms for
integrating them into an overall process are flawed. The process is
dominated by technocratic and top-down thinking, resulting in documents
which emphasize a corporate vision of privatisation, large-scale
investments and biotechnology as the key answers. The process gives
insufficient emphasis and recognition of the rights, knowledge and
experience of' local people and communities and the need to manage water in
ways that protect natural ecosystems, the source the source of all water.
However, we support the process of' community based participation employed
for the Vision 21 (Vision for Water for People)
If the Global Water Partnership and the World Water Council are to
continue, their work must be made accountable and transparent. Their
governance must be reconstituted to be more transparent and legitimate.
Their work must be regularly reviewed by the United Nations, through the
Commission on Sustainable Development, and by the stakeholders themselves.
We strongly, insist that a clean, healthy, environment and access to basic
water and sanitation are universal rights, and cannot therefore be
negotiated as commodities. Thus, water and water services must be removed
from the General Agreement on Trade and Services and the agenda of the
World Trade Organization.
We also consider that food and water insecurity is intrinsically linked to
the current unfair Global trade systems embodied in the WTO rules.
Access to information, as a prerequisite for participation in
decision-making processes, is a fundamental right. Legal and institutional
mechanisms must be put in place for the empowerment of communities to
participate at all levels. Access to justice must be guaranteed.
The key to the sustainable provision of water for life is the maintenance
and protection of the ecological integrity of all ecosystems. We call for
the adoption and implementation of a restoration agenda for the
rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems.
We urge a substantial increase in the levels of spending for clean water
and sanitation for poor people and communities.
Debt cancellation is essential for water security in poor countries.
We strongly demand that water and sanitation services are under the control
of 'the local communities and that the benefits stay within the
communities. We also demand that the management of' these services be
participatory and transparent. We reject privatisation other than in
accordance with these principles.
The degree to which the gender perspective is mainstreamed must be
determining indicator of the success or failure all future policies and
actions.
We want to move forward. We are committed to transparent participatory
processes and to work with all stakeholders, to develop pro-poor national
strategies and standards for water resources management and services.
_______
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
6, Prasanna, Road No.11, Christian Colony,
Chembur, Mumbai - 400 071__________
Tel: (91) 22 - 557 4895 Fax: (91) 22 - 556 6265
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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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