In the framework of the neoliberal privatization process encouraged by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, we find the last digs of the ambition in which big capital is trying to get its claws in order to obtain absolute control and maximum profit:  biodiversity (genetic material), oxygen and water.

MEN AND WOMEN OF THE CORN, BUT ALSO OF WATER

More than 70% of our bodies is made up of water.  All living beings, all plants, all animals, all women and men need water to exist.  It is a public good (not commercial) that we all need to exist.  Our body cannot live 10 days without the water that runs through our veins.  Water is for all of the cultures of the world.  For this reason it does not smell, it does not know and it doesn’t have colour, because it does not distinguish among languages, roots or living beings.  We all have a right to it.  If we lose 10% of the water in our body our health is in danger.  But if 20% is lost, whoever the person, he or she dies.  Each day we need to take in 3% of our body weight.  For this reason, having access to water is not only a human right, but rather something more radical.  We are fundamentally, necessarily and vitally tied to water.  Water unites us one and all.  Nobody can be denied water.  Water should bring peace.  It should be a sign of peace.  Without water, life is not born, it does not grow, it does not develop.  For this reason, water is development, it is growth.

WHERE IS THE WATER?

Seventy-one percent of Earth’s surface is covered with water, in addition to the millions of tonnes of water vapour floating in the atmosphere.  Of all the water there is in the world, 97% of it is salt water, found in seas and oceans.  0.5% of it is found as surface humidity and atmospheric water vapour.  The rest, only 2.5% is fresh water that we can use for drinking. [1]   And, of this fresh water, one third of it (33%) flows and only a small part of this in a river of the world (1.7%).  What’s worse is that of these rivers, 60% of them have been dammed resulting in a blockage in the water cycle.  Another part of this fresh water flows below the surface or is found in a holding there or at the surface in the form of lakes or ponds.  In other words, of every 100 drops of water, 97 drops are salt water and only 3 drops are fresh water.  According to some sources, 17% of all fresh water is found in Brazil, Russia has 11%, Canada has 7%, China has 7%, Indonesia, the United States and Bangladesh each have 6%; India has 5% and 35% is found in the rest of the world’s countries. 

WATER AND DEATH

Each year, 11 million people die due to a lack of water or from diseases transmitted in the water.  This is equal to all of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, to the entire population of Guatemala and it is more inhabitants than are found in El Salvador.  On the other hand, it has been calculated that 65% of incoming patients to hospitals and 80% of medical consultations are caused by ailments transmitted in water; and that 80% of illnesses and 33% of deaths are due to the potable water crisis. [2]   Today, half the world lacks hygiene; millions of people die from diseases carried in dirty or contaminated water.  Contaminated water affects 3.3 billion people in the world.  More than 300 million people get sick each year from diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, diarrhea, dysentry, ****cracoma, amoeba-related disease, dengue, typhoid,  and cholera among many other diseases.

THE BAD CULTURE OF WATER

Water is poorly cared for and poorly distributed.  It is spilled, thrown out, taps are left open; rivers are cut and dammed; marshes, wetlands and even mangrove stands where life is born are drained.  There is no lack of those who want to hoard and keep the water for themselves or do business.  While some use millions of litres of water or waste it, others die of thirst.  The loss of water due to leaks, illegal connections and measuring problems is high.  In Asian cities, it can be up to 35-40%, and in some cities even 60%. [3]   We simply don’t know how to care for our health.  There are even some who say that the Earth has stopped rotating as it should because its blood, the water in the rivers, has stopped flowing.  And every year, between 3 800 and 4 300 cubic kilometers of fresh water is removed from the lakes, rivers and aquifers of the world, two times more than in the fifties.

IF THERE IS LITTLE WATER, IT BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE

Although it depends upon the climate and the culture, the each person requires, on average, 50 litres of water, daily.  This is equal to 1 250 litre per year (or something more than 18.25 cubic metres annually).  This includes water for drinking (at least 2.5 litres under normal conditions), hygiene, bathing and food preparation.  Nonetheless, while in the United States each person consumes an average of 400 litres each day, in New Delhi, India, an entire poor family consumes 700 litres.  In 1990, more than 1.4 billion people were found below this level – this is 16 times the total population living in the region of Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP).  More than 2.5 billion people lack water treatment.

The average annual water consumption per person in the United States is 110 000 litres; in Japan it’s 104 000 litres; in Switzerland it is 96 000 litres; in Canada it is 93 000 litres; in Italy it is 78 000 litres; in Greece it is 40 000 litres; in India it is 9 000 litres; and in the Sudan it is 7 000 litres.  The distribution between wealthy and poor countries is abysmal.  We can say that in the homes of rich nations and in the most comfortable homes of the nations in development, average water consumption is between 4 and 14 times greater.  This doesn’t even account for hotels with their pools and the hundreds of towels and sheets they wash each day; nor the restaurants, golf clubs, factories and textile industries, nor the mining companies.

For the poor of the cities, water service is of minimal quality and in many cases they pay excessive amounts to water distributors.  Also, urban demands often receive priority treatment over rural needs. [4]   Of the more than 6.1 billion people of the world, more than 1 billion lack access to clean and healthful water.  In theory, there is enough water for 20 billion inhabitants.  But in the cities of poor nations, 70% of the poor do not have potable water.

According to a study by Manos Unidas, the medium use per person per day in industrialized countries is 3 500 litres of water while in poor countries it is between 2 to 5 litres.  According to the Guia del Mundo which has its headquarters in Uruguay, presently more than 500 million people suffer from an almost total lack of drinking water and it is estimated that this figure will be 250 million in 2025.  It also states that in Southern countries, six million children die each year from drinking contaminated water.  Regardless of the  source and its data, the situation is alarming wherever one looks.  For example, 85% of the world’s water is consumed by 12% of the world’s population.  This means that while 12 people use 85 litres, 88 people must share 15 litres of water.  One in every five persons in the world (20%) does not have safe and secure potable water.  Within a few years, this will rise to 30%.  Women are those who pay most for water in the poor nations and in developing nations.  It is they who dedicate the most time to the family ensuring that there is water in the home.  Together with the children, they carry the water from the river, the wells, the springs, the lakes or they collect it from the leaves of plants.

THE WATER CONSUMING SECTORS

Agriculture consumes 67%, industry consumes 20% (equivalent to all of the world’s hydroelectric production), and municipal and domestic use accounts for 10% of water consumption.  Many cities or companies such as Coca-Cola deplete the aquifers that took centuries to fill.  As well, many so-called development companies dry up rivers for construction, destroy marshes, or use lots of water to make their products such as the automobile, mining and textile industries among others.  Here are some examples of how many litres are used to make: 1 tonne of sugar = 1 800 000 litres; 1 tonne of cement = 3 500 litres; 1 tonne of wool = 550 000 litres;1 tonne of barley = 500 000 litres; 1 tonne of steel = 250 000 litres;  1 tonne of paper = 220 000 to 380 000 litres; 1 tonne of synthetic rubber = 1 400 000 litres; 1 Ford vehicle = 400 000 litres.  Or, to bath = 90 litres; to drink = 2.5 litres; to wash 10 kg of clothing = 140 litres.  To brush one’s teeth without turning off the tap for a minute = 6 litres; to wash plates without turning of the tap for 15 minutes = 90 litres; and for a toilet = between 6 to 20 litres.

In Africa, Asia and Latin America, agriculture is the predominant consumer of water at 85%.  In all regions of the world except for Oceania, domestic water consumption is at less than 20% of the water used. [5]   In Latin America and the Caribbean there are 510 million of use of which 76 million inhabitants do not have access to a safe and secure source of water.  The shortages are in villages and in cities.  in 1995, 46% of the world population was living in urban areas and this could reach 60% within 30 years, principally in poor and developing nations where 20-50% of urban inhabitants live in poor neighbourhoods and precarious settlements.  By the year 2025, 70% of the world population will not have access to sufficient water; this is equal to 3.5 billion people living in countries under water stress.

CORPORATE THEFT VIA WATER

The hydromafia wants to put water up for sale.  The World Trade Organization and the Multilateral Bank or so-called International Financial Institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), are the fundamental axes that are putting this vital liquid into the hands of companies.  Two of these companies, Bechtel and Monsanto, both from the United States, seek to privatize and control water in several countries such as India, Bolivia and Mexico.  The companies, Vivendi and Suez are becoming water owners in the world and they control the access to potable water for hundreds of millions of people on the planet.

The advance of this savage privatization intends to put the lives of millions of people into the hands of just a few.  In Argentina and Chile many rivers have been privatized for the exclusive use of large transnational corporations.  The World Bank forced Bolivia to privatize its water system which was corruptly bought by the American company, Bechtel, the company that also controls the water system in the city of Cochabamba.  Immediately after Bechtel took control of the system, access to water decreased and prices rose by 40%.  However later, through resistance and organization, the people managed to recoup control of the drinking water system.

In the last decade governments have gone about privatizing access to water, drainage, treatment, exportation and water-related technology services.  In the year 2000, the IMF forced the privatization of water in 16 under-developed nations.  Among these countries were Angola, Benin, Guinea Bissau, Honduras, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Tanzania and Yemen.  As we can see, at least three of these were sibling Central American countries and eight were Sub-Saharan African nations.  They all have the same factor in common:  they are highly impoverished and terribly indebted to the multilateral banks.  This situation allows the WB and the IMF to impose their policies more rapidly than usual.

In the locality of La Soledad, Colombia, the Tecnicas Valencianas del Agua (Tecvasa) company of Spain, which does not have any investments in its own country, managed to obtain a 20-year concession for water services.  Tecvasa controls a zone with nine million Latin American inhabitants with a total business volume of 180 million dollars in 2001.  This company was created in 1999 to compete for the privatization of water in Latin America.  Only three years after its creation it already has four affiliates: Metroagua in Santa Marta (Colombia); AAA Dominicana (Santo Domingo in The Dominican Republic); Amagua in the canton of Zamborondon (Ecuador) and AAA Venezuela in the state of Zulia.

In Mexico, according to official statistics, more than 12 million Mexicans do not have access to potable water.  This is equal to the population of Guatemala.  In Mexico, the government of Vicente Fox also launched the water privatization process with the help of economic resources from the WB and other North American banks.  The Suez transnational has won many of the privatization bids in various Mexican cities as have Vivendi and Bechtel under the camouflage of Unites Utilities.  In each of these cities the peoples’ neighbourhoods lack set fees for water services, rather they increase augmenting the poverty in these belts of misery.

THE WAR FOR WATER

Water use affects relations within and outside nations; between rural and urban populations; between up river and down river interests; among agricultural, industrial and domestic sectors; and between human needs and the requirements for a healthy environment.  For these reasons, fresh water, access to it and its control, will be the cause of many wars in the world.  This is not new.  Four-thousand, five-hundred years ago, the Sumerian City-States of Lagah and Umma negotiated to bring an end to their confrontation over the water of the Tigris River.  Since the year 805, there are more than 3 600 documented agreements regarding water with respect to navigation, electrical energy, fishing, crop irrigation, border delineation, access to springs, etc..  Around 300 of these have nothing to do with navigation but regard aspects related to water quantity, quality and hydro-energy.  Of these, many are limited to relatively stringent aspects and do not establish principles for the integrated management of the resource throughout the watershed.  Given that the pressure related to the use of this resource is intensifying, one can expect growth in conflicts over water and the need for greater cooperation. [6]

From 1820 to the year 2000, more than 400 agreements in which water is considered to be a precious, expensive, limited and finite resource have been signed.  From 1948 to 2002, 1 831 water-related interactions were registered, of which 1 228 were cooperative in nature promoting the signing of 200 water distribution and new dam construction deals.  Five-hundred and seven conflicts were recorded of which 37 were violent, 21 had military intervention and 30 have been involved Israel and its neighbours.  Wars and conflicts of diverse natures have been recorded in Israel, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq and Kuwait.  The United States has also had water disputes with Mexico and it happens in the triple border of Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.  There are also conflicts in the watersheds of the Aral Sea, Jordan, the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates.  Following this trend, we will likely encounter future conflicts along the following rivers: Lempa, Bravo, Ganges, Kuene, Rio de la Plata (River of Gold), Mekong, Orange, Senegal, Tumen, Zambeza, Limpopo, Han, Incomati, Usumacinta, Chad Lake among others.  Presently, it is calculated that there are 640 significant conflicts over water access throughout the world.

There are 261 flows that cross the political borders of two or more countries found in 145 nations.  These watersheds account for 45% of the land surface of the world.  They contain 80% of the global fluvial volume and affect 40% of the world’s population.  In more than 60% of these cross-border flows, there is no existing water cooperation, distribution and conservation agreement.  Of these 261 flows, 80 are found on the American continent where 14% of the world’s population and 41% of the world’s water is found.  Curiously, in some of the countries where water resources are scarce, there are many transnational companies behind the production of hydro-electricity and the privatization of this sector.  By 2025, there could be a world water crisis.  Among the 15 countries with major “water stress” (water crisis) there is, in order of importance:  Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Israel, Korea (Hyundai), Iraq, Madagascar, Spain (Union Fenosa and Endesa Iberdrola), Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Germany (Siemens), Italy, South Africa and Poland.  Hence, water control brings about major bellicose and military conflicts.

In the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and Plan Puebla-Panama (PPP), water has been converted into an issue of national security for the government of the United States.  North American companies invade the bought territory and control all of the strategic resources with the help of the United States’ military bases.

The World Bank report, Independent Water Entrepreneurs in Latin America – The other private sector in water services, offers an analysis of private companies in the Latin American water sector – Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay and Peru.  In the cities analyzed, the companies attend to 25% of the local population.  The small companies have set networks (pipeline supplies) giving service to 14 000 homes.  Nonetheless, in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, the neighbourhood cooperatives are the only potable water providers for the million inhabitants.  Elsewhere, the private initiative in Cordoba, Argentina gives service to 10 – 15% of the population, equal to 38 200 homes. 

THE ALTERNATIVES

It is necessary that basic water service remain a public good and not a private or commercial good.  It is important to avoid having water under the control, domination and exclusive possession and benefit of private initiative.  So much responsibility over all of humanity’s life cannot be left in private hands.

The above means that water is not a problem in itself.  Rather, the problem is in the development model that uses it.  There would be no water problems if industries cleaned what they contaminate before returning it to the river; if there were no abuse of agri-chemicals that benefit most, the companies that produce them.  We would not have a water problem if it weren’t for so much deforestation – the product of large-scale monoculture plantations or the millions of hectares of forests cut to satisfy the misspent paper market of northern countries.  Nor would we have a water problem if we didn’t dam so many rivers to justify the supply of water to large cities that lose the water in the pipes or in the poor use of the resource or to generate so much electricity that it is wasted and misspent in developed countries.  Given the culture of squandering and waste, a new water culture is necessary.  A culture of savings and the criteria of equality in water distribution is required.  There is water for humans on the planet.

It is necessary to recoup traditional means of capturing water; to generate decentralized systems in the countryside and to create a sustainable economic model.  Eighty percent of agricultural lands in the world are cultivated using rainwater contributing 60% of all food production.  It is possible to strengthen crops with rainwater and sustainable mechanisms to retain water, recharge water deposits or recharge underground and ground-level waters, etc..  Instead of making so many unaffordable dams, the money could be used to repair pipes, modify cisterns or carry out campaigns to save and wisely-use this resource.

There is one controversial aspect.  Many people believe that we must pay for the water that we use.  Can one compare the consumption of water to the consumption of any other good or service?  Can this be asked of the poor?  The next day, the companies, after they have contaminated everyone’s air, the air of the planet which is necessary for the survival of all of humanity and all forms of life inhabiting here, they’ll purify it and moreover we’ll have to pay them to clean after they’ve contaminated it.  It is easy to demand that the population pay for the water when the difficulty in consenting to it is a source of wealth for other sectors.  It is easy to say to the rural population that they must pay for their water when the large cities have cheap and wasteful water at the expense of damming rivers and drying up the source of water in the countryside.  It is easy to ask the people to pay for water because the government no longer has money after having reduced its funds and having been forced to apply neoliberal policies.  But the same can be argued with respect to health, education and other basic services that should be in the hands of the state and not in the hands of private enterprise.  It is not the one that has signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

(Source:  The “Don’t be a Prisoner of the Dams” manual, CIEPAC, March 2005.  For more information regarding water, visit:  www.bancomundial.org/agua).

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