WATER: IT’S ABOUT LIFE
January 16, 2016 / Glen Reynolds
Water is about life itself. But for giant corporations like Vivendi, Suez, Perrier/Nestlé and Bechtel, water is about profits. Around the world, local communities are fighting the devastating impacts of corporations and entrepreneurs coming into communities to make a profit. It is the “Blue Gold” rush.
The Blue Gold seekers treat water as a commodity rather than a fundamental human right which should be protected as a public trust. The threat comes in three forms:
· Municipal water/sewer systems. Here in the United States communities have fought to keep municipal water under public control in Lawrence MA, Stockton CA, New Orleans LA, Indianapolis IN and many other communities. Privatization is touted as a way to control costs in times of tight city budgets, but it leads to higher rates, poorer service, and the loss of good-paying jobs. Privatization is a global problem, too. In South Africa, communities are fighting the installation of pre-paid water meters.
· Bottled Water. In other communities, the fight is against corporate take-over of local springs and over-pumping of groundwater or municipal water in order to keep fueling the demand for bottled water. Soft-drink companies have sold the public on single-use plastic bottles on the premise that municipal water is of poor quality, but consumers are catching on, and beginning to refuse to pay to drink a beverage than costs up to 1000 times more than it does from the tap. But corporations will fight for the profits they used to count on when they paid little if nothing for the water they pump from Mother Nature.
· Bulk water. High-flying entrepreneurs have proposed withdrawing water from aquifers and wild rivers so they can profit by transporting it to water-hungry cities. The Alliance for Democracy is working with communities and linking with other organizations to stop these corporate takeovers.
http://www.thealliancefordemocracy.org/html/eng/2037-AA.shtml