The New Blue Gold

[Guest guest]

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/19017/

 

The New Blue GoldSilja J.A. Talvi , AlterNet

Viewed on Jun 23, 2004

 

There are untold profits to be made from controlling the simplest and most vital

ingredient of our survival: water.

 

The only question, from a profit standpoint, is why it has taken this long.

 

" You can't do anything without water, " says Alan Snitow, co-producer and

co-director of Thirst, a groundbreaking and provocative new film about the rush

to privatize what the filmmakers rightly define as the very " essence of life. "

 

In their third collaborative documentary film after the successes of Blacks and

Jews (1997) and Secrets of Silicon Valley (2001), Bay Area-based filmmaking duo

Deborah Kaufman and Snitow take an unflinching and multifaceted look at water

privatization in Bolivia, India, Japan and the U.S.

 

What Kaufman and Snitow find is that the " water rush " is likely to turn into one

of the most volatile and potentially galvanizing issues of the 21st century.

 

" This is an incredible struggle, and yet it's still so far below the radar that

we're trying to give it a voice, " Kaufman says. " People are already willing to

die for [water], but it's something that many of us still take for granted. "

 

The grab for corporate control of water is indeed already here in our own

backyards. But the conflict over water supplies perhaps most familiar to

news-savvy audiences is the place where Thirst goes first: to Cochabamba,

Bolivia. After the country auctions off the water system of its third-largest

city to U.S.-based Bechtel Corporation in 1999, residents experience water price

hikes of 30-300%, and the situation eventually erupts in a cross-class protest

that makes headline news worldwide.

 

By April 2000, the government responds to civil unrest by declaring martial law.

Shortly thereafter, Victor Hugo Daza, a 17-year-old peaceful protester, is shot

dead in the streets by a government sniper.

 

Daza's death doesn't quell dissent the way it was intended to. In fact, protests

heat up to the point that water consortium execs beat a hasty retreat, and

Cochabamba's water system gets handed over to a community-run utility. In an

unlikely turn of events, the citizens actually get what they want; water gets

treated like a human right, not as the last frontier of the commercialization

and privatization of earth's natural resources.

 

" They're on the defensive in the global South, " Kaufman explains. " In many ways,

they're ahead of us responding to what's in the near future for all of us. "

 

In point of fact, American cities and towns are the new staging ground for rapid

and strategic power plays over who controls water supply. In 2004, 85% of U.S.

municipal water systems are publicly owned, with a shocking 15% already in the

hands of corporations. Unbeknownst to most residents, municipal governments are

being heavily courted in the here and now to turn over control of their water

supply to multinational companies like Suez Water, whose U.S. subsidiary took

control of Atlanta's water in 1999.

 

The incentive for local governments is hard to miss; with an estimated cost of a

trillion dollars, the prospect of replacing aging pipes and improving the

condition of public water plants is increasingly seen by city leaders as a

budgetary drain best dealt with through privatization.

 

To exemplify the point, Kaufman and Snitow turn their camera to Stockton,

California, where a well-run locally controlled water purification and

distribution system is about to be offered to the highest bidder. (Notably, the

public utility itself isn't allowed to be one of the bidders.)

 

The transfer of power over the water supply is intended to take the form of a

" public-private partnership, " and Stockton Mayor Gary Podesto is a firm

supporter.

 

" This can be done for less dollars, " as Mayor Podesto says.

 

A subsequent, well-orchestrated grassroots mobilization by city residents --

baristas, orthodontists, environmentalists, utility employees and union members

among other unlikely allies -- fails to capture any attention from the national

media. But Kaufman and Snitow have the instinct to jump into the heart of the

conflict, meeting and talking with all sides of the privatization debate.

 

But there is no storybook ending in Thirst where Stockton's citizenry are

concerned. By February 2003, in fact, the Mayor and a severely divided City

Council hand over the $600 million, 20-year contract to a two-company consortium

of corporate water giants: OMI and Thames.

 

All along, Stockton residents who did their research were emphatic that

corporate claims of cost effectiveness, quality and safety had not been realized

elsewhere.

 

In Atlanta's case, for instance, the city's $428 million, 20-year contract with

Suez-subsidiary United Water Services was cancelled after a series of citywide

EPA alerts advising residents to boil their tap water because of toxic

contaminants. Finally, after five such " boil-alerts, " staff cutbacks, leaking

water mains, and rising sewer bill costs, city administrators yanked back

control of the utility.

 

Little victories aside, corporate water grab is still fully underway, working in

collusion with governments and international financial agencies, wreaking

environmental havoc and inflating water prices all the while. In the final

analysis, the battle over water, says Kaufman, has more to do with democracy

than what's coming out of your tap. And it's toward this end, say the

filmmakers, that they fully intend their documentary to spur further activism

and to educate audiences about the extent to which water has already been

commodified.

 

As captured in Thirst, John Briscoe, the Senior Water Advisor to The World Bank,

puts it this way to an assembly at the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan.

 

" What does it mean to say that water is a human right? " he asks. " Those who

proclaim it so would say that it is the obligation of [governments] to provide

free water to everybody. Well, that's a fantasy. "

 

In touring the U.S. with their film, Kaufman and Snitow have already become

cautiously optimistic that the tide of privatization can be turned. A model

ordinance to safeguard water as a public trust has already been drafted in

concert with Madison, Wisconsin Mayor David Cieslewicz, and will be presented at

the upcoming 72nd U.S. Conference of Mayors in Boston, which runs from June

25-29th. (Perhaps not so coincidentally, the conference's website is being

sponsored by Veolia Water, which has become North America's leading private

" service provider " for local government water and wastewater supplies.)

 

" It's a festival of privatization, " as Snitow says. " But what they don't yet

fully realize is that for many people, water is the final boundary that can't be

crossed. "

 

Check local listings for screenings of 'Thirst.' To coincide with the U.S.

Conference of Mayors, 'Thirst' will show at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on

June 26th. It will have its national P.O.V. broadcast premiere on PBS stations

on Tuesday, July 13th at 10 p.m.

 

To learn more about related issues -- and a growing campaign to boycott bottled

water -- visit http://www.sierraclub.org/cac/water/bottled_water/.

 

 

 

© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/19017/

 

The New Blue GoldSilja J.A. Talvi , AlterNet

Viewed on Jun 23, 2004

 

<<<There are untold profits to be made from controlling the simplest and

most vital ingredient of our survival: water.

 

The only question, from a profit standpoint, is why it has taken this long

>>>

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This comes as no surprise to me. I saw a bit of the water wars as a child in

Los Angeles. Much of my adult life has been spent in the high Sierra..

corner of California/Nevada.

Nevada is a part of " the wild west " where people used to get killed over

water rights. They still do. Las Vegas is in for a huge eye opening, in the

not too distant future. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the contract runs out

next year. All those water attractions at the the casino's. The

rapid/rampant growth of housing...so glad I live in the north!

I wasn't aware of what has happened in Stockton. Geez, I went to college

there.

I am however, acutely aware of the problems California (and Nevada) faces in

terms of water. Here on the south shore of Lake Tahoe, we don't have to

really be concerned...at least not in my lifetime. But, just down the road

in [anywhere] California they should show deep concern.

The Sacramento area is a total flood plain. Salt water backs up almost every

year. The levy's are ancient and privately owned.

The center of California is a valley. A good deal of all the vegetables sold

in the U.S. are grown there. Irrigation uses millions of acre feet of water.

Where do you suppose it comes from?

The counties of Los Angeles and Orange are by necessity, going to have to

revamp their water plans.

I have been saying this for years and years. So glad someone has picked up the

ball!