Cross-post and previous post - tallex2002 posted it here on 30 August. Anyway...
>Sun 'to give us cheap fuel' > >SCIENTISTS say they have found the Holy Grail >of fuel and can supply unlimited, super-cheap >energy to everyone on Earth in seven years. > >They claim to have found how to use the SUN >to turn WATER into power and so end our >reliance on oil, coal and gas. The sun might be unlimited, for the next five billion years or so anyway, as the story says, but water? Water is not an unlimited resource. It's just no use taking a narrow view of these things, they have to be seen in the round. >full story > >http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004401196,00.html > >We will see if this tech actually gets out in the market >place and is not put on a shelf somewhere to collect dust. I'm sure there's a place for it other than the shelf, but not in this shape - it's the same old one-size-fits-all "best solution" approach that so often does more harm than good in the end, and where there are benefits it's too ofen to all the wrong people, at the expense of those who were supposed to benefit. I'll post some information about water resources, and water and oil, below, much of it previously posted here and to be found in the list archives. There's a lot more in the archives. >regards > <snip> Water "It's a lot like oil. Nobody talks (yet!) about a Hubbert's Peak for water, though it strikes me it's a lot more relevant..." "Water is already as contentious an issue as oil, or more so, in many parts of the Middle East, and the world. Meanwhile Americans are increasingly unhappy about the fact that privatized water supplies in the US are being operated by as German company. The corporatization of water supplies worldwide proceeds apace, and is causing very great harm..." See CorpWatch, some good stuff there: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=165 Water Wars "There is growing alarm around the scarcity of water worldwide -- a crisis that is only expected to get worse. Their are fierce battles being waged over who should control this precious resource. One vision, put forward by major corporations trying to make a buck on water services, and their allies in government, is that water is a valuable commodity to be regulated by the market. The other, sees water as a basic human right. "This Issue looks at confrontations between communities and water giants like Suez and Viviendi of France, the German-British conglomerate RWE-Thames and Bechtel in the United States. These showdowns are being fought in places like Cochabamba, Bolivia and Soweto township in Johannesburg, South Africa. They are also being fought in communities around the United States and Europe. "We seek to bring you the stories and voices of those on the frontlines of the global water wars..." [more] War for Natural Resources - Mixing Oil And Water: http://www.progress.org/2003/iraq12.htm Archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/sgroup/biofuel/20898/ Recommended: "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 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: http://www.ifg.org/analysis/reports/bgsummary.htm Here are a couple of excerpts: The Corporate Theft Of The World's Water http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5875 The Public Pain Of Private Water http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5903 "... the relentless search for secure water supplies to feed the insatiable appetites of the water-bottling corporations [22.3 billion U.S. gallons in 2000] is having damaging effects. In rural communities throughout much of the world, the industry has been buying up farmland to access wells and then moving on when the wells are depleted. In Uruguay and other parts of Latin America, foreign-based water corporations have been buying up vast wilderness tracts and even whole water systems to hold for future development. In some cases, these companies end up draining the water system of the entire area, not just the water on their land tracts." -- Debunking The Myths Of Bottled Water - An Excerpt From "Blue Gold" by Maude Barlow http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5973 Maude Barlow has written much about this, try a Google (or archives) search for "Maude Barlow water" (without the quotes). Such as: "Who Owns Water?" September 2, 2002 http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&s=barlow Bechtel And Blood For Water: War As An Excuse For Enlarging Corporate Rule By Vandana Shiva, May 12, 2003 http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2003-05/12shiva.cfm Archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/BIOFUEL/25511/ "... since the city's water services were sold off to French-based multinational Suez (formerly Suez Lyonnaise) the bills have tripled and many people can no longer afford to keep the water flowing. Instead, they are drinking untreated river water, making it hardly surprising that in February 2001, Alexandra fell victim to a cholera outbreak which claimed four lives. The government's response? - Start evicting the squatters. In an ironic shift, former anti-apartheid activists in Alexandra and Soweto have turned to resisting water privatisation as the new threat to life and dignity." http://www.corporatewatch.org/news/white_gold.htm White Gold July 9th 2002 That's in Johannesburg. The water actually comes from Lesotho: "The dams are not good news for the people of the Lestho highlands. Much of Lesotho's economy is based on subsistence farming, but the dams have flooded valuable agricultural land in the river valleys - the Katse Dam alone displaced several thousand people, most of whom ended up moving to the slums of the capital city, Maseru, or to villages further up the mountains where there is no spare land for them and, ironically, often no water supply. People who were formerly self-sufficient farmers are supposed to be compensated by food handouts. Lesotho is currently on the brink of famine, like much of southern Africa, and has begun soliciting food aid - a fact perhaps not wholly unconnected to the flooding of farmland Meanwhile, a study of the rivers downstream of the dam shows severe pollution, death of fish and vegetation and increased spread of human and animal diseases - all a result of decreased water flow." Same story everywhere this happens. This way works: "Promoting Local Water Management in Nepal", IDRC Reports. January 23, 1998 -- In the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal, the land of the world's tallest mountains, smaller may be better. At least, that's what two engineers believe when it comes to water management. "We've got to get rid of the fixation in our part of the world that water means projects, and projects means large projects," says Dipak Gyawali of the Nepal Water Conservation Foundation (NWCF). Gyawali and his partner, Ajaya Dixit, see themselves as myth-busters with a mission: to convince the government to examine all of the options for wise water management before embarking on costly high risk, large projects. Among the myths they are determined to bust: that Nepal is rich in water; that a heavy annual rainfall means a good water supply; that large water projects are beneficial and create jobs; and that textbook water engineering -- involving the construction of dams and embankments -- is always the best option for Nepal. They say existing studies show that mega-projects are more politically motivated than practical, and tend to promise more than they deliver in terms of jobs, irrigation potential, and flood control. Instead, the pair favours locally based alternatives, such as less expensive mini-reservoirs, which retain water and help fight erosion, or small water-driven turbines to power homes and local industries. http://www.idrc.ca/reports/read_article_english.cfm?article_num=180 There's abundant evidence for that from all round the world, no matter how little notice the World Bank and the usual suspects feel like taking. Same with afforestation - let the local people do it and keep the big guys OUT. If you want trees, that is, rather than resources and a cash-flow to pillage. Same with biofuels too - local-level, micro-regional, and sod the big guys, they're no use. General: West and Central Africa -- 20m people in six countries rely on Lake Chad for water; the lake has shrunk by 95% in the last 38 years China -- Two-thirds of cities are facing severe water shortages Iran -- up to 60% of people living in rural areas could be forced by drought to migrate to the cities Central Asia -- the level of the Aral Sea, formerly the world's fourth biggest inland sea, has dropped 16m (53 ft) and its area has almost halved "Bangladesh capital faces acute water crisis", Planet Ark, December 13, 2001, Bangladesh -- Bangladesh authorities have been forced to call in the army to distribute drinking water in parts of the capital due to a chronic water shortage in the teeming city of nearly 10 million. Dhaka regularly faces devastating floods in the wet season, but higher consumption is outstripping supplies. http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/13708/story.htm "Honduras rations drinking water due to lack of rain", Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Associated Press, December 11, 2001 -- The Honduran government initiated a seven-month rationing program for drinking water in the capital due to unseasonably low rainfall that has left aquifers practically dry... Honduras and countries across Central America suffered from an intensive four-month drought that left more than 366,000 people malnourished and damaged 700,000 hectares (1.7 million acres) of grain crops in Honduras. http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/12/12112001/ap_rain_45839.asp "Drought Covers 20 Percent of the World", ENS, October 4, 2001, Washington, DC -- A new satellite-based method for early detection, monitoring and analysis of drought shows that almost 20 percent of the world's landmass has been stricken by drought over the past two years. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-04-09.html "International water crisis looms", National Post Online, Canadian Press, August 13, 2001 -- Millions of people face water shortage problems -- estimates vary from 450 million to 1.4 billion. The number will skyrocket to 2.7 billion by 2025, says a new study by the International Water Management Institute (previous studies put the estimate at 2.5 billion people by 2050, while other current estimates see as much as half or even two-thirds of the total world population suffering water shortages by 2025). Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, with some of the most heavily populated and poorest regions of the world, will be most affected, along with the Mediterranean region, including some parts of southern Europe, North Africa, and parts of North and South America. http://www.nationalpost.com/news/updates/story.html?f=/news/updates/st ories/20010813/business-521015.html "Pressure Rising on World's Fresh Water Supply", ENS, August 14, 2001 http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2001/2001L-08-14-02.html "Floods", New York Times, Beijing, August 26, 1998 -- At a government news conference on the disastrous floods Tuesday, Zhao Qizheng, chief of the State Council Information Office, said the government had decided to shut down logging activities in the upper catchments of the Yangtze River. The deforestation has led to more rapid runoff of rain waters and increased silting of river and lake beds. He said all cleared areas would be replanted in a long-term strategy of ecological restoration. "Drought Evaporates Water Supply for Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Canton", Shenzhen, China, ENS, August 24, 1999 -- At the same time that flood waters along the Yangtze River in central China have killed 800 and displaced millions this summer, the drying up of the East River in southern China's Guangdong Province has led to a serious water shortage problem in the Pearl River Delta. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug99/1999L-08-24-01.html "Iran drought turns lakes to scorched earth", Reuters, August 01, 2001 -- Iran is suffering its worst drought in 30 years. Most of the country's wetlands have dried out, and many farmers are struggling to survive. http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/08/08012001/reu_iran_44508.asp "Iran flood toll reaches 200, foreign aid arrives", ENN, August 15, 2001 http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/08/08152001/reu_iranflood_44639.asp "Drought Chokes Off Iran's Water and Its Economy", New York Times, September 18, 2001 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/18/international/middleeast/18IRAN.html "Sudan Flooded Out After Parching Drought", ENS, August 23, 2001 -- Widespread flooding in northern Sudan after two consecutive years of serious drought have displaced tens of thousands of people, destroyed crops and threatened food security, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FA0) said. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug2001/2001L-08-23-01.html "Asia's Dry Lands Crisis too Critical to Ignore", ENS, Bangkok, Thailand, November 10, 2000 -- The world can no longer afford to ignore the crisis in Asia's dry lands, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said. According to UNEP's Global Environmental Outlook 2000 report, half of all land in South Asia has lost agricultural potential because of poor agricultural practices, deforestation, overgrazing and climate change. Degraded areas include the sand dunes of Syria, the steeply eroded mountain slopes of Nepal, and the deforested and overgrazed highlands of Laos. The result, said UNEP, is desertification. Dramatic examples of this can also be seen in the encroachment of desert in Western China, India and Pakistan, and dust problems in the two Koreas and Japan, said the organization. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/nov2000/2000L-11-10-10.html "Countries and their water wars", The Earth Times, December 21, 2001 -- Wars over ownership of fresh water sources and rivers are already underway in several parts of the world and deserts are expanding, while people argue about how to deal with water conservation and the importance of fresh water in geopolitics. http://www.earthtimes.org/dec/worldinchallengecountriesdec22_01.htm "World water crisis will threaten one in three --UN", Reuters, August 13, 2001, Stockholm -- A looming water crisis could threaten one in three people by 2025, sparking as much conflict this century as oil did in the last, the U.N.-sponsored Third World Water Forum said in a statement. "Water could become the new oil as a major source of conflict," Dutch Crown Prince Willem-Alexander, patron of the 1999 World Water Forum, said after delivering the opening speech in Stockholm. http://www.organicfarms.ca/news/xcnews.asp?cmd=view&articleid=119 http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12012 "US expert warns Middle East of water crisis", Reuters, Damascus, Syria, July 20, 2001 -- A former US senator and water expert has warned that the Middle East could face a grave water shortage in the next few years and urged leaders of the region to engage in joint efforts to solve the problem. Paul Simon, author of "Protecting the World's Water Supplies", warned in a lecture in Damascus on Wednesday that wars in the next 15 years would be launched to control water, not oil. He said US intelligence agencies had named at least 10 areas in the world where wars over water were likely. http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=11681 "Africa's potential water wars", BBC News, November 15, 1999 -- The main conflicts in Africa during the next 25 years could be over that most precious of commodities -- water, as countries fight for access to scarce resources. Potential 'water wars' are likely in areas where rivers and lakes are shared by more than one country, according to a UN Development Programme (UNDP) report. The possible flashpoints are the Nile, Niger, Volta and Zambezi basins. The report predicts population growth and economic development will lead to nearly one in two people in Africa living in countries facing water scarcity or what is known as 'water stress' within 25 years. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_454000/454926.stm "East African Water Clash Slams Nile Treaty", Nairobi, Kenya, October 18, 2001 (ENS) -- In a debate that may lead to confrontation between Egypt and eastern Africa nations over the River Nile, Kenya's members of parliament have voiced concern over the legality of an international treaty that bars east African countries from using water from Lake Victoria for irrigation. They dismissed the 1929 Nile Water Agreement as "obsolete" and called on the government to demand the review of the treaty and seek support of Tanzania and Uganda. "This treaty only benefits Egypt and we cannot sit back while we have water we can use to irrigate our land," said Energy Minister Raila Odinga. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-19-01.html The Economist magazine's Africa editor Richard Dowdon says part of Egypt's motivation for supporting Eritrea in its conflict with Ethiopia is its mistrust of Ethiopia's plans for the Blue Nile. During the previous Ethiopian government, tensions with Egypt increased rapidly when Ethiopia considered building dams on the Nile. "The next war in our region will be over the waters of the Nile, not politics." -- then-Egyptian foreign minister Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 1998 "Water wars: Part l - The Middle East", BBC News, 15 March, 2000 -- Meir Ben Meir, former Israeli Water Commissioner, paints a gloomy picture of possible conflict over water between Israel, the Palestinians, Jordan and Syria. "I can promise that if there is not sufficient water in our region, if there is scarcity of water, if people remain thirsty for water, then we shall doubtless face war. At the moment, I project the scarcity of water within 5 years," he says. The Jordan Valley is not unique. In other ancient water systems - the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates - there is also a danger of conflict over water. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_677000/677547.stm "Water Wars", by Jim Rogers February 2001, Worth magazine -- In 1995, World Bank vice president Ismail Serageldin said that "the wars of the next century will be about water." Already such conflicts are springing up all over the world. In the Middle East, debates over the use of the Jordan River have led to dangerous squabbles between Israel and its neighbors. Turkey and Syria have argued over water rights in the Tigris-Euphrates basins for years. Other sources, such as the Aral Sea between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, as well as the Ganges, which runs between India and Bangladesh, also are points of contention. http://www.worth.com/content_articles/ZZZZSYLXAHC.html "Water Wars of the Near Future", 2,300-word article by Marq de Villiers, author of "Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource" -- "Water shortages may not lead to shooting wars, but they most certainly lead to food shortages, increased poverty, and to the spread of disease. They make people poorer. They increase the migrations of peoples, further straining the massive mega-slums of the developing world. Standards of living deteriorate, social unrest and violence increase... Bangladesh may never go to war with India... but the stress caused by water shortages led to massive migrations of people, upsetting the ethnic balance of several Bangladeshi and Indian states, and leading to the rise of terrorist and nascent revolutionary movements. By other definitions, then -- water wars." http://www.itt.com/waterbook/Wars.asp "Water Conflict Chronology", compiled by Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security -- charts 63 incidents of conflict over water, mostly violent, since 1500 AD. The timeline shows that water conflicts are becoming more frequent and more serious. http://www.worldwater.org/conflictIntro.htm lastoasis.gif "The Last Oasis: Facing Water Scarcity", by Sandra Postel , 1992, Worldwatch, ISBN 0-393-31744-7 "Water scarcity will affect everything from prospects for peace in the Middle East to global food security, the growth of cities, and the location of industries," said Sandra Postel. Already, 26 countries have more people than their water supplies can adequately support. Tensions are mounting over scarce water in the Middle East and could ignite during this decade. And competition for water is intensifying between city dwellers and farmers around Beijing, New Delhi, Phoenix, and other water-short areas. Building large new dams and river diversions is becoming prohibitively costly and environmentally damaging. "In most cases, measures to conserve water and use it more efficiently are now the most cost-effective and environmentally sound ways of meeting water needs," Postel says. "Together they constitute our 'last oasis'--and they have barely been tapped." With techniques available today, farmers could cut their water demands by 10-50 percent, industries by 40-90 percent, and cities by a third with no sacrifice of economic output or quality of life. https://secure.worldwatch.org/cgi-bin/wwinst/BWB03P "IMF Forces African Countries to Privatize Water", Globalization Challenge Initiative, 8 February 2001 -- A review of IMF loan policies in forty random countries reveals that, during 2000, IMF loan agreements in 12 countries included conditions imposing water privatization or full cost recovery. In general, it is African countries, and the smallest, poorest and most debt-ridden countries that are being subjected to IMF conditions on water privatization and full cost recovery... Water privatization and greater cost recovery make water less accessible and less affordable to the low-income communities that make up the majority of the population in developing countries. http://afjn.cua.edu/Water%20Privatization-May01.htm "Water Wars -- Privatization, Pollution, and Profit", by Vandana Shiva, 2002, South End Press, ISBN 0-89608-650-X While drought and desertification are intensifying around the world, corporations are aggressively converting free-flowing water into bottled profits. The water wars of the twenty-first century may match -- or even surpass -- the oil wars of the twentieth. Vandana Shiva, "the world's most prominent radical scientist" (the Guardian), shines a light on activists who are fighting corporate maneuvers to convert this life-sustaining resource into more gold for the elites. Outlines the emergence of corporate culture and the historical erosion of communal water rights. Shiva calls for a movement to preserve water access for all, and offers a blueprint for global resistance based on examples of successful campaigns. http://www.southendpress.org/books/waterwars.shtml "Monsanto and water privatization", by Vandana Shiva, The Hindu, May 1, 1999 -- Over the past few years, Monsanto, a chemical firm, has positioned itself as an agricultural company through control over seed -- the first link in the food chain. Monsanto now wants to control water, the very basis of life. "What you are seeing is not just a consolidation of seed companies, it's really a consolidation of the entire food chain. Since water is as central to food production as seed is, and without water life is not possible, Monsanto is now trying to establish its control over water," said Robert Farley of Monsanto. "Monsanto plans to launch a new water business, starting with India and Mexico since both these countries are facing water shortages." Privatization and commodification of water are a threat to the right to life. Water is a commons and must be managed as a commons. It cannot be controlled and sold by a life sciences corporation that peddles in death. http://www.portaec.net/library/food/waterwatch.html Poor pay more -- poor people in the developing world pay on average 12 times more per litre of water than the rich do and it's often contaminated, according to the World Commission on Water for the 21st Century. Poor people pay huge premiums to water vendors -- 60 times more in Jakarta, 83 times more in Karachi, 100 times more in Haiti and Mauritania. 1.2 billion people around the world lack access to safe water, and 3.4 million of them die each year from water-related diseases. http://www.watervision.org/clients/wv/water.nsf/%28webNews%29/A9E2715B E702AEDCC12567C40030C25A "Monsanto plan to cash in on world water crisis", Independent (London) September 26, 1999 -- Monsanto, the genetically modified food giant, drew up plans to make billions of dollars out of the world's water crisis, confidential company documents reveal. The documents, seen by the Independent on Sunday, identify a "vast economic opportunity" for the company in impending global shortages of resources such as water. They outline a strategy to use "environmental issues" to "deliver strong financial returns". The business plan adds that two billion people worldwide "still lack reasonable access to safe water" and says that this is likely to rise to 2.5 billion over the next decade. "Initial entry into the water business will create US$400m in annual revenues". The plan foresees the potential to create several billion dollars in annual revenue. Monsanto recently dropped plans to establish water businesses in India and Mexico. A Monsanto spokesman confirmed that the company had made plans to exploit the world water situation but had decided several months ago not to proceed. He did not rule out that the company might return to them in the future. Water flows uphill toward money -- The village of El Mayor in the Colorado Delta in Mexico grew up by a great waterway, rich with fish, farms and forests. "Our river is gone," laments chief Onesimo Gonzales. "No more fishing. Trees are dead. No one plants. The wells are dry." The remaining families coax murky water for washing from a distant borehole, but for drinking or cooking they wait for trucks that sell clean water at seven pesos (65 cents) for a five-gallon jug. At that rate, they would pay $13 million for the same amount of Colorado River water that developers of Shadow Lake near Palm Springs, California, bought for $3,400 for their $70 million water-ski estate. The villagers' plight typifies what is happening around the world as politics and engineering shape access to dwindling water sources. -- "Wealth Dictates Where Water Flows" (AP) May 18, 2001 http://infomanage.com/forum/read.php?f=10&i=33&t=33 Newfoundland plan to export water stirs controversy", Wall Street Journal , April 11, 2001 -- A plan by the Canadian province of Newfoundland to sell lake water to the United States is meeting steep opposition from some Canadian officials. The plan is to sell 13 billion gallons of fresh water per year from Gisborne Lake. Newfoundland stands to gain $1.3 million a month in payments from the company that would export the water. But critics say the deal would set a dangerous precedent by making Canada's water a tradable good that would be subject to the rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). If that happens, the country may not be able to stop U.S. or Mexican companies from exporting it. "If Newfoundland does this, we will lose sovereign rights over our water," said Maude Barlow, chairman of the lobby group Council of Canadians. "To see our water sucked up by the Americans would be too much." [Subscription required.] http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB986940839605624238.htm "The Human Right to Water", by Peter Gleick, President, Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, 1(5) Water Policy 487-503 (1999), Elsevier Science -- More than a billion people in the developing world lack safe drinking water. The failure of the international aid community, nations, and local organizations to satisfy these basic human needs has led to substantial, unnecessary, and preventable human suffering. Access to a basic water requirement is a fundamental human right implicitly and explicitly supported by international law, declarations, and State practice. Governments, international aid agencies, non-governmental organizations, and local communities should work to provide all humans with a basic water requirement and to guarantee that water as a human right. (Acrobat file, 124kb) http://www.pacinst.org/gleickrw.pdf The Blue Planet Project is an international effort begun by The Council of Canadians to protect the world's fresh water from the growing threats of trade and privatization. During March 16-22, 2000, activists from Canada and more than a dozen other countries met in The Hague to oppose the trade and privatization agenda of the Second World Water Forum and to kick start an international network to protect water as a common resource and a basic human right. http://www.canadians.org/blueplanet/index2.html "Blue Gold -- The Global Water Crisis and the Commodification of the World's Water Supply", by Maude Barlow, International Forum on Globalization Committee on the Globalization of Water, 1999 -- 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... Selling water to the highest bidder will only exacerbate the worst impacts of the world water crisis. http://www.ifg.org/bgsummary.html "Bolivia's War Over Water" reports from the scene by Jim Shultz, executive director, The Democracy Center -- In April 2000 Bolivia grabbed the world's attention when the city of Cochabamba erupted in a public uprising over water prices. In 1999, following World Bank advice, Bolivia had granted a 40-year privatization lease to a subsidiary of the Bechtel Corporation, giving it control over the water on which more than half a million people survive. Immediately the company doubled and tripled water rates for some of South America's poorest families. The entire city went on a general strike. The military killed a seventeen-year-old boy and arrested the water rights leaders. But after four months of unrest the Bolivian government forced Bechtel out of Cochambamba. http://www.democracyctr.org/onlinenews/water.html "Water as Commodity -- The Wrong Prescription", by Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians: "Water as a fundamental right is guaranteed in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights: A growing movement of people believe that the imperatives of economic globalization-unlimited growth, a seamless global consumer market, corporate rule, deregulation, privatization, and free trade-are the driving forces behind the destruction of our water systems. These must be challenged and rejected if the world's water is to be saved." http://www.foodfirst.org/pubs/backgrdrs/2001/s01v7n3.html "Billions without clean water", BBC News, 14 March, 2000 -- Half the world's population is living in unsanitary conditions without access to clean water, according to a UN-backed report. The report, drawn up by the World Commission on Water for the 21st Century, says three billion of the world's most deprived people live in squalor and misery without access to proper sanitation. It says access to water should be seen as a basic human right as well as a key factor in the fight against diseases such as typhoid and cholera. UN water expert Brian Appleton says 5,000 children die needlessly every day from waterborne illnesses: "That's equivalent to 12 full jumbo jets crashing every day," he says. "If 12 full Jumbo jets were crashing every day, the world would want to do something about it -- they would want to find out why it was happening." http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/newsid_676000/676064.stm "India's Ganges, a holy river of pollution", Reuters, Allahabad, India, January 14, 2001 -- Hindus believe that a dip in the holy Ganges during the Maha Kumbh Mela festival will cleanse their souls of sin. But the pollution that bedevils the river could do untold damage to the bodies of the faithful who will bathe in the Indian city of Allahabad over the next few weeks. Ram Surat Das, a barefoot old man, emerged from a crowd of Ganges bathers on Saturday holding a steel pot of water. "I'll use this for drinking and cooking and get some more tonight," he said. "It's absolutely clean. Of course it is, it's Ganges water." So far he has survived the physical onslaught of raw sewage, rotting carcasses, industrial effluent, fertilisers and pesticides that infect the river from the Himalayan foothills to the Bay of Bengal. Experts say pollution is to blame for a host of diseases -- hepatitis, amoebic dysentery, typhoid, cholera and cancer -- among the roughly 400 million people who live in the vast Gangetic basin. http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=9513 "Millions dying needlessly from dirty water - WHO", Reuters, Brussels, March 23, 2001 -- More than one billion people have no access to clean water and 3.4 million die every year from diseases that could be easily remedied by better supplies and sanitation, says the World Health Organisation. The world's poor pay more than the rich for worse water -- up to 20 percent of household incomes -- but are more at risk from water-borne illnesses, the WHO said during a news conference to mark World Water Day yesterday. "About $16 billion is spent on the provision of safe water and sanitation throughout the world," said Wilfried Kreisel, executive director of the WHO's European Union Office. "In order to halve the number of people suffering from diseases due to contaminated water, it would be necessary to spend $23 billion. (The $7 billion difference) is one tenth of what Europeans spend annually on alcoholic beverages." http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm?newsid=10228 "Rivers Have Long Way to Flow to Meet New EU Law", Brussels, Belgium, April 25, 2001 (ENS) -- Habitat destruction and pollution from industry and agriculture have left many of Europe's rivers needing to be revived in order to meet new European Union water standards. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says 50 out of 69 river stretches in 16 European countries suffer from "poor ecological status" due to canals, dams and locks, floodplain drainage, over-abstraction of water, industrial discharges, insufficient water treatment and heavy use of fertilizers. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/apr2001/2001L-04-25-10.html "Biggest U.S. Water Polluters Not Punished", Washington, DC, May 28, 2001 (ENS) - More than one in four -- 26 percent -- of the nation's largest industrial, municipal and federal facilities were in "significant" violation of the Clean Water Act at least once during a recent 15 month period. A new report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) says both state agencies and the U.S. EPA have failed to properly pursue and punish polluters. The report, "Polluters' Playground: How the Government Permits Pollution," tells of the continued dumping of hundreds of millions of pounds of toxic chemicals into waterways and the significant violation of the Clean Water Act by almost 1,700 large facilities. Of 42 industrial facilities in Significant Non-Compliance for the entire 15 month period, EPA records indicate only one received a fine over the past five years. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/may2001/2001L-05-28-06.html "EPA Seeks Clean Water Rule Delay -- Revision Planned to Make Pollution Control 'Workable'", Washington Post, July 17, 2001 -- The Bush administration yesterday sought a lengthy delay in adopting a new rule for cleaning up thousands of the country's polluted lakes, rivers and streams while it attempts to rewrite the measure.The rule, drafted by the Clinton administration, has been sharply criticized by conservative Republicans in Congress and challenged in court by utilities, manufacturers and farm groups that say it could force them to spend tens of billions of dollars more annually on water cleanup. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5248-2001Jul16.html "Water Ills Tied to Animal Waste, Study Concludes", Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2001 -- Improper disposal of animal waste at hog, dairy and egg farms is threatening drinking-water supplies, recreational waters and health in parts of Southern California and across the nation, according to a report released Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The "Cesspools of Shame" report says waste water at so-called factory farms contains viruses and bacteria, antibiotics, nitrates, ammonia, metals and other toxins that contaminate aquifers and recreational waters. Improper waste storage has also resulted in fish kills and the release of toxic airborne chemicals that cause human illness, the report says. http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-000060736jul25.story?coll=la%2D news%2Dscience "Free drugs from your faucet -- How did tiny amounts of nearly every drug under the sun get into our drinking water -- and what are they doing to us?", Salon.com, October 25, 2001 -- The U.S. water supply is laced with residues of hundreds of medicinal and household chemicals, compounds that originate not at a Dow Chemical drainage pipe but from our own personal plumbing. The contaminants come from our bladders and bowels, our bathtub drains and kitchen sinks. As much as 90 percent of anything the doctor orders you to swallow passes out of your body and into your toilet. Wastes from farm animals are never treated -- and loaded with antibiotics and fertility hormones. As chemists make new concoctions, the water supply takes the hit. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/10/25/drugs_water/index.html "Pharmaceuticals found in Canada's water system", Toronto Globe and Mail, September 5, 2001, Ottawa -- Traces of medical drugs such as antibiotics, estrogen and antidepressants are being found in Canada's water system, Health Canada scientists say. Studies found pharmaceutical compounds and chemicals from products such as cosmetics and shampoos, veterinary medicines, food additives and genetically modified foods in samples taken from sewage effluent. Research conducted on water systems in Europe has discovered compounds that make up such drugs as ASA, antidepressants and blood-pressure medications. http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?tf=tgam/ common/FullStory.html&cf=tgam/common/FullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/ config&vg=BigAdVariableGenerator&date=20010905&dateOffset=&hub=environ ment&title=Environment&cache_key=environment "Many of world's lakes face death, expert warns", Reuters. November 12, 2001, Tokyo -- Many of the world's freshwater lakes face death by pollution, resulting in catastrophe for the human populations that depend on them, an environmental expert warned. "There is not a lake left on the planet that is not already being affected by human activities," said William Cosgrove, vice president of the World Water Council. "We're killing the lakes, and that could be disaster to the human communities that depend on them." He said the situation faced by many of the world's lakes -- estimated to number some five million -- is dire. http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2001/11/11122001/reu_lakes_45550.asp "Aerosol Pollution Could Drain Earth's Water Cycle", San Diego, California, December 7, 2001 (ENS) -- Pollution may be seriously weakening the Earth's water cycle, reducing rainfall and threatening fresh water supplies. A new study by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography suggests that tiny particles of soot and other pollutants are having a far greater effect on the planet's hydrological cycle than previously realized, directly affecting fresh water availability and quality. The aerosols are a mixture of sulfates, nitrates, organic particles, fly ash, and mineral dust, formed by fossil fuel combustion and burning of forests and other biomass. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-07-06.html "African Ministers Mobilize to Finance Clean Water", Bonn, Germany, December 10, 2001 (ENS) -- African ministers in charge of water from 22 countries are urging that action to reduce death rates due to poor hygiene and polluted water be placed at the core of the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa. There is a need for "drastic measures to improve water, sanitation and hygiene conditions for all our peoples," they declared. The recommendation comes in the wake of figures showing that 6,000 people a day, or over two million a year, are dying as a result of sub-standard sanitation. http://ens.lycos.com/ens/dec2001/2001L-12-10-01.html "Hidden Groundwater Pollution Problem Runs Deep", Washington, DC, December 11, 2000 (ENS) -- Toxic chemicals are contaminating groundwater on every inhabited continent, endangering the world's most valuable supplies of freshwater, reports a new study from the Worldwatch Institute. This first global survey of groundwater pollution shows that a toxic brew of pesticides, nitrogen fertilizers, industrial chemicals and heavy metals is fouling groundwater everywhere. The study by the Washington, DC based Worldwatch Institute also found that the damage is often worst in the very places where people most need water. http://ens-news.com/ens/dec2000/2000L-12-11-06.html "One billion people at risk from world's shrinking and polluted lakes", Tokyo (AP) November 12, 2001 -- Nearly 1 billion people are at risk because of overuse and pollution of the world's lakes, said global experts gathered in central Japan to draw up plans for fighting the trend. Already, more than half the world's lakes and reservoirs -- representing 90 percent of all liquid fresh water on the Earth's surface -- have been harmed by pollution and drainage, said delegates at the International Conference on Conservation and Management of Lakes. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2001/11/12/i nternational0419EST0485.DTL ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. 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