Thread: Forms of Water Privatization!

NOTE: this is directly tied to NAFTA/CAFTA/FTAA...
There are "Hemispheric" plans to control OIL and other RESOURCES which will take the power out of the "sovereign nation" and put it into the hands of the "governing Hemispheric body!"
Also, look who now owns much of the "water rights"

http://www.americas.org/item_19483

Forms of Water Privatization

Fuente: La Jornada, México, 5/4/05
Originally published in La Jornada, Mexico City.
by Silvia Ribeiro

The continent of Latin America faces the greatest injustice in the use and access of water. According to Maude Barlow, Canadian activist and international expert on the issue, although we have the greatest volume of fresh water per capita, with 20 percent of the world’s supply, the population of the continent only has access to one percent.

This figure, along with many others, was one part of the water crisis puzzle that farmers, indigenous groups, unionists, members of urban movements, researchers, students and civil societal organizations began to piece together in the Popular Workshop in Defense of Water, which took place in Mexico from the 25th to the 28th of April, sponsored by the Center for Social Analysis, Information and Popular Training (Casifop), in conjunction with the Polaris Institute of Canada and Mexican as well as international organizations.

With contributions from more than 400 participants from all over Mexico and 10 Latin American and North American countries, it became evident that there is a water crisis with common features across the entire continent. The sources of this crisis are the same: the private appropriation of water resources by a handful of transnational corporations, favored by the policies of organizations like the World Bank, the World Trade Organization and free trade agreements.

But privatization takes many forms and affects us in many ways. The transnational corporations manipulate the facts of the crisis in order to justify plundering resources and increasing privatization, blaming ordinary people, the farmers and public services for inefficient use and administration of the resource. Because of that, it is essential to construct our own maps of the crisis as well as the paths that lead to confronting it. Based on their research, and the testimonies and presentations of the workshop, Andrés Barreda, from Casifop, and Tony Clarke, from the Polaris Institute, summed up some of the forms that privatization of water assumes in rural and urban areas.

Privatization of territories and bioregions. The companies that do business in water and/or need bodies of water for their activities seek the privatization of entire territories and bioregions to guarantee a monopoly of the resource while being protected by changes in legislation. This already happens, for example, with the ocean in Chile. It also happens by granting individual title over the collective lands of campesinos and indigenous groups, through programs like PROCEDE (Program of Certification of Ejido Rights) in Mexico, in order to legalize the sale of their land. The separation of land ownership from that of the wells and water sources that are found on it, placing both on the market, is another form of privatization of territory.

Privatization through rerouting water sources. The construction of dams, waterways and rerouting of rivers from their natural courses to provide areas of high industrial, agro-industrial and urban consumption deprives millions of farmers and indigenous people of the resource, in many cases causing resettlements that irreversibly destroy their very ways of life, culture and economies. One can add to this the impact upon water resources and the environment that sustains, which will make the resource more scarce in the future.

Privatization by contamination. The mining, oil, paper, and electric industries, along with the contamination by agrotoxins from industrial agriculture and other dirty industries, contaminate water sources as a “collateral effect,� appropriating de facto a resource that is for everyone by making it impossible for others to use.

Privatization of municipal water services in urban areas. Through concessions and contracting out of multiple services, protected by new national water legislation, the transnational corporations have taken over the distribution networks and purification plants, establishing conditions of access and charging fees to the people for their use. What was once a vital public resource belonging to everyone, is now a product that only those who can pay for it will be able to access. The band of water privatizers is led by water giants Suez and Vivendi (now Veolia), who control 70 percent of the world market, followed by RWE-Thames, Bechtel and a few more.

Privatization by bottled water. There is no adequate maintenance of the public water distribution networks due to unjust budgeting policies, but instead industries that “transform water into water� are subsidized with ridiculously cheap permits for the exploitation of water sources. The cost in the end to consumers is a thousand to ten thousand times more expensive and the plastic bottles themselves play a role in polluting subterranean water sources. Four large multinational soft drink corporations lead this band, which exercises a nearly world-wide monopoly of the sector: Coca-Cola, Pepsico, Nestlé and Danone.

Monopoly on technologies. At the same time that industries plunder and contaminate everyone’s fresh water, they present themselves as the only ones capable of extracting water from the deepest sources (technology that the oil drilling industry is currently using), or of purifying it adequately, since the complexity of pollutants has increased due to their own activities (industrial, biological, salinization of aquifers). By means of the monopolistic control of markets and patented technology, the destroyers of the resource present themselves as its saviors, whom we all must pay.

Nevertheless, throughout the entire continent popular resistance is growing, confronting the different aspects of this renewed assault on public goods. The challenge is to consolidate the common fabric from every perspective, just as the streams flow downward and unite in the river.


Silvia Ribeiro is an investigative journalist with Grupo ETC. Translated by Aaron Maus

2ndamendisis--OUTSTANDING POST!! This confirms our suspicions. Control of the Food Supply through genetically modified seeds; Control of the Water Supply through "privatization"; what's left? Oil....well....Saudia Arabia has put is largest refinery up for sale and the new Partnership with Mexico will force "exploitation of its oil reserves".

The water is a true crisis. They have already privatized several municipal water companies claiming the investment needed to update and repair water lines and technologies was best handled by private industry....in a New Jersy town, I think it was Camden...yes...remember that article I posted??

OMIGOD...I just ealized another reason they need to "take out" the Americans....our Anti-Trust Laws....we can bust the monoplies....we may be the only nation that can by law....merge us with Mexico and Canada and Pop Goes the Weasel....no more Anti-Trust Laws....Monopoly and all its horror RULES!! Globalism is finalized when America's Anti-Trust Laws are replaced with Global Councils and World Courts and Trilateral Commissions with Mexico and Canada.

OMIGOD.....that's IT....our Anti-Trust Laws are a huge legal impediment for the Globalists....since most of them have their largest basis in America...we can bust 'em...every one of them under our Anti-Trust Laws, but if we no longer regulate business in the United States, and they instead address all their business matters through the Hemispheric Council....instead of USA busting the Big Boys, the Hemispheric Council will be swallowing up all the Little Boys...marching straight towards world wide monopoly of everything that matters.

GREAT POST 2ndamendsis....connect the dots....this rabbit trail's gonna land us a real live bugs bunny named Davey Rocket and his Band of CRONES!!

That's why the Bildergers meet in "secret". So the Justice Department never knows what they're up to and can walk all over our Anti-Trust Laws free as birds with apparently, according to reports where their security lapsed, Major Media in attendance like the Grahams from the Washington Post and the New York Times and many others that are on a LIST I have...thanks to a forum member.

ANYBODY WANT TO SEE IT? Anti-Trust Division of the US Department of Justice perhaps?? Anybody home? You all still haven't responded to our quest for an investigation of the:

LARGEST ILLEGAL LABOR MANIPULATION SCHEME IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES???? Anybody home there at DOJ??

OR are you serfs already chained to the Global Crones?

WE intend to FIND OUT!!

JUDY, when first we met some weeks ago I mentioned to you the WATER SITUATION.

Here's the proof in the pudding as well as what's happening in Europe! My dear, brilliant father in law shared many important things with us but this.... WORLD'S WATER MONOPOLIES was on top of his list.

NICARAGUA

http://www.nicanet.org/hotline.php?id=149#topic2

Nicaragua Network Hotlines for February 8, 2005
News topics covered in this Hotline include:

Topic 2: New Water Law Opens Privatization Spigot

On Feb. 3 the National Assembly completed first reading and referred to committee a new General Water Law despite protests outside the Assembly and the presence in the gallery of hundreds of protesters with huge banners proclaiming their stance against the law.


The General Water Law, which will be voted on again in the National Assembly within 30 days, would authorize the extensive use and exploitation of water reserves by private companies or enterprises involved in agricultural activities, cattle ranching, energy generation, and tourism. The control of water resources would be removed from local governments and transferred to the national public utility ENACAL (Nicaraguan Aqueduct and Sewerage Company). The law was drafted by the National Assembly Environmental and Infrastructure and Population Committees over the last eight months.


While it declares water to be national patrimony and forbids privatization of water, it also authorizes the government to award contracts for "sustainable" exploitation which the Alliance Against Water Privatization has said amounts to the same thing. One of the demands of the Alliance and the Consumer Defense Network before the law is put to the second vote is that local governments and other community leaders are consulted and allowed to suggest amendments to the law

Absolutely, My Dear!!

Water

Food

Energy

These three....and of these, the greatest is water.

Without the water, you can't grow the food.

Notice, the McCain Kennedy co-sponsor, Brownback from KANSAS. Kansas has no water. They have used their vast acquifers to irrigate their fields. Kansas was a grassland naturally. But modern farming practices have changed the soil. They also converted to a dense type of agriculture that requires irrigation for the farm products. I'm originally from Missouri and 20 years ago they had a water shortage and were talking then about diverting the Missouri River to provide water to Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Missourians would never agree to this.

But under Open Borders and the new government of the Hemisphere, I don't guess MISSOURI would have much say in the matter.

Remember the forum poster that mentioned about the water deal McCain was involved in with the French in Arizona??? I can't remember who that was, but that puts McCain smack dab in the MIDDLE of this scheme on water, on migration, on open borders, in cohoots with the French, and on the END of the US.

No wonder his buddy Brownback stepped up and said "sure I'll co-sponsor" McCain Kennedy.....and you'll get my farmers the water they need right?" Sure Brownback, says Water King McCain.

McCain....we're on to you Pal!



OUTRAGEOUS!!! PEOPLE DON"T KNOW!!

Remember the forum poster that mentioned about the water deal McCain was involved in with the French in Arizona???

That was probably me.

McCain is DEEPLY INVOLVED WITH PEABODY COAL. Peabody Coal is GLOBAL now and has "pending"............here me.......PENDING agreements in S. America through St. Louis! St. Louis is home to some mighty OIL & ENERGY men under other guises. Some of these men would greatly surprise everyone!! Secretaries of Defense, Energy and others make up a part of all their Board of Directors.

PEABODY keeps McCain in office and had destroyed {through McCain} the Navajo and their land in Arizona.

McCain is not AMERICA'S FRIEND. Watch PEABODY COAL

It was during a thread with you and me and this person from Arizona who just happened to remember reading it somewhere a few years ago. You triggered his comment with your issue of water. Remind me tomorrow and we'll see if we can find that post and that forum poster and have them DIG for some details. I went searching for French water companies and found a Vivendi (don't know if they're French)....that's the one doing the water deal in Camden and then I searched Perrier who is now owned by Nestle. I was expecting to find the Rothshilds, but their name is probably hidden. Then, I diverted to something else. We'll pick it back up tomorrow.

http://www.ftaaimc.org/en/2004/11/5985.shtml

Uruguay: more than 60% against the privatization of water
d (translated by k), 11.06.2004 05:12

More than 60% of those who voted in the presidential elections on the 31st of October in Uruguay also included on their ballot a "yes" to the constitutional reform to prevent future privatization of water. Although there are no official numbers, the projections of some studies guarantee that the reform was approved. A vote of 50% of the population plus one was required to approve the reform. Acording to some polls, the percentage of approval will reach 65%.

The referendum arose from a popular initiative. In response to a letter of intention from the Uruguayan government and the IMF that proposed extending Uruguay's commitment to the privitiazation of the services to drinking water and water treatment, which had already taken place in some parts of the country. In October of 2002, the Commision in Defense of Water and Life (CNDAV) was formed, and shortly thereafter a signature campaign began. The referendum required a number of signatures equal to that of 10% of the voting public (220,000 people). The campaign surpassed that number by a significant margin.

more information: IMC Uruguay | Redes | RealWorldRadio

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The history of the privatization of water in Uruguay is short but complicated. It began in Maldonado with the company Uragua (a subsidiary of the Spanish Aguas de Bilbao); soon Aguas de la Costa (subsidiary of Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, a French multinational) apeared in the same district. Immediately, two important events occurred in that district: taxes went off disproportionally and the quality of water diminished to the point that residents were warned not to drink it untreated. Throughout Uruguay it is common practice to drink water "from the tap" without worry; a few months ago, while in Maldonado this writer was offered a cup of coffee made with what appeared to be swimming pool water and could not drink it.

In July of 2003 the then minister of the Economy and Finance, Alejandro Atchugarry, ordered Uragua to leave the country. They never left. The signatures campaign continued until the 31st of October, exactly one year before the national elections, 283,000 signatures were registered. A "human chain" was formed reaching from the offices of the FFOSE (Sanitary Workers of the State (OSE) labor union) to the Legislative Palace (the seat of Parliament).

On September 1st, 2004, once it was already known that a plebiscite would occur, the director of the OSE signed a memorandum of understanding with SAFEGE (French Studies and Development Company, itself a division of Grupo Suez Environnement dependent on the previously mentioned Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux) to "further the development of drinkable water" in Montevideo and the metropolitan area, in precisely the most rentable area in the the country. The initiative also included a subsidy from the French government to realize specific studies. The signature of this document was considered very grave, since the constitutional referandum, to occur less than two months afterward, questioned that very company.

The 21st of October, 2004, residents of Maldonado filed a law-suit against the companies Uragua and Aguas de la Costa for infringement of contract and environmental destruction, such as the drying of the lagoon Laguna Blanca. The first "audiences of reconciliation" between residents and the two companies are scheduled for November 5th and 18th, respectively.

Friday October 29th, two days before the plebiscite and during the "veda electoral" (period in which candidates are forbidden to campaign, to allow citizens time to reflect), Oscar Brum, under-secretary of the Ministry of Housing, Zoning and the Environment, made public the a letter from Uragua addressed to the president of OSE. In the letter the company declared that if the winning vote was "yes", it would immediately leave the country . . . but not before being compensated by the State. The [Electoral] Commission found Brum in flagrant violation of the "veda", and denounced him before the Electoral Court.

It wasn't the only denunciation: the theft of "yes" ballots from the Electoral Court and the appearance of appocryphal ballots also occurred. In the light of these occurrences the FFOSE, with very little time before the veda electoral, was forced to ask the population to examine carefully the date and format of the real ballots , of which they circulated photos. The vote finally took place yesterday. Persons from every party pronounced their support of the reform, although of the three largest parties only the EP-FA and a single sector of the Partido Nacional officially supported it and distributed ballots along with their lists.