INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF SWEET WATER
As a contribution for the world campaign of this year "WATER FOR ALL", we present this dossier of the documents diffused in the last two months. By the occasion of the Water World Day --March 22--they were organized two parallel forums: the III World Forum on the Water, in Kyoto, and the Alternative Forum, in Florence. In this forums several voices were listened. It didn't lack that of contribution of the Holly See, to which we add a theological reflection about the symbolism of this vital element. The current debate is about if the water would be considered as a scarce resource susceptible of being commercialized or as a right of every body to access to this very public good. Europe presses for the water’s privatization; but we can already see its negative effects in some places, as Bolivia or the African countries. Some people also question if the construction of damns is a good solution for the water shortage.
"Panel de los banqueros sobre financiamiento del agua apesta a auto interés": A critic to the III World Forum on the Water, taken place in Kyoto, on March 16 – 23. The dominant position accepted the privatization -at least partly- for the distribution and purification services of the drinkable water. Against this there was organized the "World Alternative Forum about Water in Florence", on 21- 22 March 2003, with the participation of more than 1000 delegates coming from 50 countries. Four seminars were had, calling the attention the interest the presence of many youths people. (Spanish) (English)
At the 3rd World Water Forum, the Holy See expressed its interest and ethical and religious point of view on water, a key element for the full development of human beings. Archbishop Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, presented the Vatican's Note to the forum entitled "Water, an Essential Element for Life," first listed some of the fundamental moral principles related to the question of water, and then addressed key problems which governments and the international community have to face today at the social, economic, political and environmental level. In the final section, after having acknowledged the importance water holds within religious traditions, the Note considers in some detail the right to water because of the growing importance that the efforts towards its full recognition are assuming in the public debate. "After the 3rd World Water Forum, and in the light of its conclusions, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace will deal with the topic of water in a more developed and detailed document," Archbishop Martino said. (English)
Water is a primordial reality whose importance and symbolism touches every level of existence. Ancient myth and modern science converge when they see water as the cradle of life, the amniotic fluid that holds the embryo of evolution and growth. As the basic constituent of all organic material, water is necessary for the existence of all living things, human, animal and plant. The article remembers Jesus speech to the Samaritan Woman, when he reveals himself as "Water Alive… who drinks of it is not again thirsty". It meditates on their use in the Liturgy, especially in the rite of the Baptism that remembers the pass through the sea. (English)
Last February, Riccardo Petrella, Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain and Secretary General of the International Committee for World Contract on Water, sustained a conference organized by the Commission of JPIC of the Union of General Superiors.The conference soon will be published in several languages by EMI Editorial and the USG. The conference responded to three fundamental questions
First: who owns water, considered by all to be a principal source of life in the same way as air and solar energy? Does it belong to the State, to the "nation", to the local community, to humankind? Is it a common good or a good that can be possessed by specific persons? What do we think of the privatisation of water management?
Second: should access to water be considered a human and social right, an individual and collective, indefeasible right or a vital need? Who has the responsibility of financing access to water for all in the quantity and quality sufficient for life? Is it a collective responsibility? Is it the responsibility of a community, or the market, or the consumers, in accordance with the principle "who uses, pays"?
Third: Is it true that there is an increased scarcity of fresh water with a consequent rise in price and that water must be considered the blue gold of the XXIst century (as petroleum was the black gold of the XXth century) and that in future there will be frequent and serious "wars for water"? How are we to prevent the on-going misuse of water through excessive and non sustainable use in irrigation, industries, drinking water projects and domestic use (including swimming pools)?
As regards the presumed superiority of capitalistic management in terms of efficacy, efficiency, transparency and quality, the experiences of the privatisation of water in the last twenty years, both in the North and South of the world, did not confirm it at an empirical level. Rather they demonstrate that if somebody benefits, they are the biggest stocks in the big companies private multinationals of the water. An example is the on going process of the Bechtel, a US multinational against the government of Bolivia in order to obtain "compensation" of 25 million $ for the "lost profit" on account of the expulsion of Bechtel by the people of the city of Cochabamba, give clear evidence that, for private firms, water is nothing else than a commodity and that they ensure services only in view of their commercial and financial gains. (English)
The World Trade Organization is pressing intensely for the privatization of the water’s purification and distribution. The European Union is one of the world " powers " that more presses toward the liberalization of the public services, specially the water. It is not casual, since nine of the ten main world companies of the water are European. Two articles in this respect. (English-italiano)
The Lake Chad Basin is shared by five countries (Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Central Africa Rep. and Niger). Its rivers used to feed into one of Africa’s largest lakes. However, the waterway has been drying up and is now just a fraction of its former size. The size of Lake Chad has gone from 30,000 km2 to 3,000 km2 in 40 years, according to some sources lake’s size decreased by 30 percent between 1966 and 1975, with irrigation accounting for only five percent of that reduction. According to Emmanuel Asuquo-Obot, a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) consultant in Nigeria, failed rains and drought between 1992 and 1994, the diversion of water from the River Chari to irrigation projects and the construction of dams on the Jama’are and Hadeja rivers in northeastern Nigeria are among factors that hastened the shrinking of the lake. This, in turn, led to loss of plant and animal habitats. Some of them they are now considered extinct in the area around the lake. Agriculture has become precarious, while surface water for fishing has decreased, prompting some fishermen to change their methods. No water leads to displacement and sometimes conflict. One of the initiatives on which the LCBC has been concentrating seeks to reverse land and water degradation trends and regenerate the lake’s ecosystem. Its implementation, expected to cost US $ 10.6 million. (English)
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003
"Water a Right for All!: Privatisation of water and Sanitation Services in Africa." Action Plan 2003 of this religious organization commited with Africa.
The strategic importance of water. Water and sanitation, commercial opportunities. A human need can be supplied, no one can sell a human right!
Models of Water Management. Various models of water management. Public-Private-Partnerships
Actors on de world water scene. Major Trans-National Companies. The IMF and the World Bank The World Trade Organisation and GATS. The European Union.
The church’s perspective. Civil society’s perspective
AEFJN’s Call for Action: AEFJN position. A call for action. National action. International action
World Water Forum 2003. GATS negotiations 2003. Multinational water companies (English) (español)
Table of Contents: Dammed Rivers, Damned Lives: The case against large dams. A Crisis of Mismanagement: Real solutions to the world's water problems. Beyond Hydropower: Energy options for the 21st century Warming the Earth: Hydropower threatens efforts to curb climate change. The Coming Storm: Preparing for a warming water world. No More Dam Illusions: The growing success of dam opponents in Japan. (English)
10. World Bank Water Strategy Is Reactionary, Dishonest And Cynical
The World Bank's executive board yesterday approved a new Water Resources Sector Strategy (WRSS). The Strategy says the Bank needs to shrug off its critics and boost spending on big dams, inter-basin transfers and other water megaprojects. Patrick McCully, Campaigns Director of International Rivers Network says: "The strategy is a reactionary, dishonest and cynical document. If put into effect it would provide rich pickings for the Bank staff's friends in the big dam lobby and private water companies but only worsen poverty, water shortages and the dire condition of the world's rivers." As the world's largest development institution the World Bank helps set the agenda for other donors and governments. The WRSS could thus do great harm not only through setting priorities for World Bank lending, but also through influencing other institutions.
(IRN Press Release, Thursday, 27 February 2003)