Bob Morris @ Apr 24th 2008 07:24 - Category: Water ;
Wired has a comprehensive, if unsettling, article about the growing water shortages across the planet. For example, by 2025 the entire Middle East could be “catastrophically low” on water.
Bob Morris @ Apr 15th 2008 10:47 - Category: Water ;
And will continue doing so until their extremely severe drought lifts.
Bob Morris @ Mar 27th 2008 01:20 - Category: Water Tags: Dean Kamen;
Kamen has invented numerous medical devices, the Segway, and more, and received multiple awards for doing so..
Everyone has been trying to find out more about his claim that “you stick a hose into anything that looks wet … and it comes out … as perfect distilled clean water.”
So far as I can tell however, it’s true. (Note: I still haven’t worked out if it can handle volatile organics like gasoline and benzene.)
It however can handle arsenic, poison, urine, sea water, and more. There are no filters to replace and nothing disposable, either.
Kamen says 50% of diseases are spread by unhealthy water. Once the price of this gets down to $1,000-2,000 then it can be used worldwide to prevent the spread of disease.
Bob Morris @ Mar 7th 2008 21:14 - Category: Water Tags: hydro power;
The turbine is mounted underwater, on a tethered barge. So, not only is it portable, it requires no dams or other expensive investments, plus there’s very little needed in terms of regulatory processes.
From the company, Hydro Green Power
Hydro kinetic technologies describe the ability to produce zero emission renewable power (energy) from the movement of water. Unlike traditional/ conventional hydropower, which requires an impoundment of water usually created by a large dam, no large infrastructures are required eliminating negative side effects to the environment and marine life.
This is an innovative, inexpensive way to get hydro power in all sorts of new places.
Bob Morris @ Feb 27th 2008 20:34 - Category: Water Tags: China;
The diversion of water to Beijing for the Olympics and for big hydropower projects threatens the lives of millions of peasant farmers in China’s north-western provinces, according to a senior Chinese government official.
The Chinese government plans to pump enornous amounts of water from the provinces to Beijing to flush out water from polluted and degraded waterways simply to put on a happy face for the Olympics.
Yet this will have a severe effect upon the provinces.
“In order to preserve the quality of Beijing’s water we have to close all our factories. But we still need to live. So I say the government needs to compensate Shaanxi,” Mr An said. “If you don’t compensate the masses then how can they survive?”
China is trying to have it both ways, rigid state control as well as rampant capitalism. These contradictions can’t and won’t last. For one thing, the business owners will loudly protest is they don’t have adequate water supplies. Also, the state itself is often an part or full owner owner in those very same businesses.
Bob Morris @ Feb 23rd 2008 03:22 - Category: Water ;
Georgia wants to renegotiate their border with Tennessee, saying it was based on a faulty 1818 survey. Moving it would given them access to billions of gallons of water from the Tennessee River. Tennesseeans are saying they “will take our long rifles up to Lookout Mountain and fire when ready”, should this be attempted.
This weird story has got everything except that actual change-driver provoking this behavior, which is climate change. Georgia wants to re-draw a 200 year old state boundary so as to purloin Tennessee’s water. In the meantime the governor of Tennessee can’t deal with this provocation because he’s too busy touring the tornado damage.
Got ourselves a real precursor here, folks — if Georgian Republicans are turning into filibustering water-bandits, imagine the mayhem in states less politically organized than Georgia.(and yes, there are some. Really.)
Or imagine the mayhem when it happens on a regional level with, say, the Southwest wanting to grab water from the Great Lakes.
Bob Morris @ Feb 12th 2008 17:32 - Category: Water Tags: Lake Mead;
Reasons: Increased demand for water and climate change. If it does go dry, then Hoover Dam stops producing power and L.A. and Vegas will have severe water shortages.
“We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it was coming at us,” said Barnett in a statement. “Make no mistake, this water problem is not a scientific abstraction, but rather one that will impact each and every one of us that live in the Southwest.
Bob Morris @ Feb 9th 2008 14:44 - Category: Water Tags: drought;
A botched survey two centuries ago put Georgia’s northern border just short of the Tennessee River. Given their unprecedented and severe drought, some in Georgia want the border redrawn so they can get the water.
The reaction of the Tennessee governor? “This is a joke, right?”
Bob Morris @ Apr 26th 2007 00:23 - Category: Water ;
Thames Water and other privatized water companies in Scotland have “third world” equipment and are currently dumping 1000 liters per second of raw sewage into the water because darn it, something broke, and company execs are just too busy counting their massive profits to go fix it. This on top of massive leaks that occur constantly in the system.
Gus Abraham at 1820 has two posts and a video about this. He emails “Watch the video. Warning ***some bad sweary words are used*** do not watch this if you don’t want to hear bad sweary words.” (Click the picture to watch the video)
I’d be swearing too if huge amounts of sewage were flowing into waters near me as fat cats twiddled their thumbs. And for those who might call this vandalism, I say the real vandals are those running Thames Water.
This is what water privatization too often does. Quality and service become abysmal as the sole focus becomes profit. Water is too important and too basic to be left to the private sector and the profit motive. It belongs to the people and should be managed by the people.
Bob Morris @ Jan 10th 2007 07:02 - Category: Water ;
This protest in Nepal is one more battle in the worldwide fight against water privatization.
Another front is in Northern Ireland with the We Won’t Pay campaign.
Bob Morris @ Jan 6th 2007 00:23 - Category: Water ;
The French company that ran the water company after it was privatized in 1997 came under criticism because of high rates and a refusal to provide service for all, a familiar complaint about privatized water companies. Bolivia just completed their take-over of the company (the company received a severance payment.)
“Water cannot be turned over to private business,” [Bolivian President] Morales said. “It must remain a basic service, with participation of the state so that water service can be provided almost for free.”
He now plans to move against privatized companies in the power and telecom sectors.
Water is too basic and too important to be managed by distant transnational companies whose sole goal is maximizing profit.
Bob Morris @ Dec 21st 2006 00:15 - Category: Water ;
Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife. Thou shalt not … drink bottled water?
Reasons include that the water used in bottling comes from poorer areas, thus either depriving them of water or making it more expensive. Then there’s the appalling number of non-biodegradable plastic bottles that end in landfills. The religious groups involved are both evangelical and mainstream. Implicit in this is a fight against water privatization.
Bob Morris @ Nov 10th 2006 00:07 - Category: Water ;
A giant water company tried to privatize the water in Stockton CA. The people fought back, and after many battles, a judge has ruled the city must take back the water company.
Water needs to be public and not at the mercy of distant huge entities for whom it is a source of income to be exploited.
Bob Morris @ Aug 26th 2006 00:18 - Category: Water ;
The United Church of Canada is urging members to avoid bottled water, saying it is the “thin edge” of water privatization, part of a larger trend of huge companies controlling water resources to the detriment of everyone else. Plus, they add, municipal water is often healthier because impurities leach from the plastic bottles into the water and the bottles themselves are just more plastic clutter that ends up in garbage dumps.
Bob Morris @ Jun 28th 2006 00:06 - Category: Water ;
Water privatization, large corporations are finding, is a money-losing proposition. One of the biggest companies in the business is backing out. Good. May this signal an end to greedheads grabbing the water, jacking up prices, and lowering the quality. Because, more often then not, that’s what precisely happens when water is privatized.
To RWE AG, Germany’s biggest electric company, the water business a few years ago seemed to promise a gusher of profits. Governments in the U.S. and around the globe were eager to privatize their water systems.
Today, RWE is in the midst of dismantling an international water empire that cost more than $10 billion to assemble and spanned more than 40 countries at its height.
Water turns out to be less like electricity than RWE hoped. It’s heavy and hard to transport, making it difficult for a big company to build economies of scale. Regulation is never predictable. In the U.S., RWE found itself fighting in town referendums and state legislatures across the country, winning many battles but losing the war.
People want their water public, not controlled by distant entities concerned only with the bottom line.
The seminal battle against water privatization, the one that inspired activists everywhere, was in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The populace, seemingly against all odds, took back control of their water after privatization had quadrupled prices and dropped the quality.
Bob Morris @ May 30th 2006 00:15 - Category: Water ;
When cities hire firms to run utilities, they seek quality at lower cost. They may get ethics scandals, violations and irate consumers.
In some places, private-sector management helped trim bureaucracies and replace decaying infrastructure, local officials say. But in Indianapolis, New Orleans, Atlanta and other cities, privatization has been accompanied by corruption scandals, environmental violations and a torrent of customer complaints.
In Atlanta, residents began complaining of brown, brackish drinking water soon after the French company Suez and a subsidiary began running the water system under a $428-million, 20-year contract.
In New Orleans, officials blamed a subsidiary of Veolia Environnement, another French company, for illegally discharging sewage into the Mississippi River on dozens of occasions.
In Milwaukee, a Suez subsidiary caused 107 million gallons of untreated sewage to be discharged into streams and Lake Michigan, a 2002 state audit found.
The article details many more such instances. Water is too precious and too basic a human right to be turned over the private industry, whose primary goal is maximizing profit for themselves and shareholders. Water should stay public.
Bob Morris @ Apr 4th 2006 07:18 - Category: Water ;
Third World countries, led by Bolivia and social organizations, have ratified their rejection of the privatization of water at the 4th World Water Forum, underway in Mexico City.
Spokespeople from these sectors voiced their opposition to the intention of developed nations and international organizations to exclude the human right to water from the meeting’s final declaration.
Water is so basic and so important that it needs to be protected from predatory capitalism, like the World Bank, who forces water privatization as a condition for loans to developing countries. Inevitably, water then becomes more expensive and the quality drops. The people in that country suffer as the money gets shipped elsewhere.
Increasingly fresh water is becoming inaccessible
By the year 2025, many estimate that two-thirds of the world’s population could be facing severe water scarcity problems, which has disastrous, if not apocalyptic, implications for both humans and the environment. Even today, one billion people throughout the world lack access to clean drinking water, and approximately 2.6 billion are left without adequate sanitation, a fatal situation which has lead to the death of 2.2 millions victims annually.
Bob Morris @ Mar 5th 2006 08:16 - Category: Water ;
Sure it’s clean, cheap and plentiful now, but Dorothy Clippindale worries the Capital Region’s water supply will one day be controlled by a profit-hungry multinational corporation.
Clippindale, an Oak Bay resident and member of the recently formed Greater Victoria Water Watch Coalition, said large corporations are becoming increasingly interested in the business of selling water.
“What you get is higher rates, increased costs and poor quality,” said Clippindale.
Bob Morris @ Feb 24th 2006 00:06 - Category: Water ;
Will Transnational water companies swallow El Salvador’s water supply?
The office of SETA, El Salvador’s water workers union, sits like a mouse at the elephant’s feet. The union’s plain, two room office sits next door to the huge, block-long two story building which is the headquarters for El Salvador’s national water company, ANDA (National Water and Sewage Administration). Inside the SETA office, union reps equipped with an old computer and chairs with broken rollers are bracing for a fight against government attempts to privatize their industry. Representatives for SETA say losing the fight could mean the “extinction” of their union and limits on Salvadoran’s access to clean water.
The battle for clean, public, low-priced water is worldwide. This is just one more example. Multinational water companies working together with the World Bank often force water privatization as terms for their onerous loans. It’s the people, especially poor people who then suffer. Water quality worsens as prices soar, often making it impossible for them to afford water. Capitalism steals one of their most precious resources from them.
Bob Morris @ Feb 9th 2006 07:40 - Category: Water ;
Water activists and non governmental organizations in north and central India have joined hands to fight water privatization initiatives by Indian state governments, oppose World Bank funding, discourage the $200 billion river-linking project, encourage conservation and provide for alternative water policies.
Wherever you find attempts at water privatization in developing countries, you will find the World Bank trying to force the issue by making privatization a condition of the loans.
Bob Morris @ Jan 20th 2006 14:47 - Category: Water ;
Bechtel drops $50 million claim to settle Bolivian water dispute.
Bechtel, a global engineering and construction company based in San Francisco, today reached agreement with the government of Bolivia, dropping a legal demand for $50 million after a revolt over privatizing water services in the city of Cochabamba forced the company out of Bolivia in April 2000.
Cochabamba was a landmark victory for the people in the worldwide water privatization battles. The people took over the privatized water company after prices rose and water quality dropped. They refused to buckle, waging street battles when necessary, and they eventually took back their water company.
Bob Morris @ Dec 30th 2005 00:17 - Category: Water ;
Are we to decide the importance of issues by asking how fashionable or glamorous they are? Or by asking how seriously they affect how many? - Nelson Mandela.
This two-part article explains in depth the problem of poor water supply in Delhi, India, using examples from other countries showing why water privatization hurts more than it helps. This is a great introduction to the myriad social. political, and health issues revolving around water.
Bob Morris @ Dec 18th 2005 00:11 - Category: Water ;
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola Company is perhaps the most widely recognized corporate symbol on the planet. The company also leads in the abuse of workers’ rights, assassinations, water privatization, and worker discrimination.
In India, Coca-Cola destroys local agriculture by privatizing the country’s water resources. In Plachimada, Kerala, Coca-Cola extracted 1.5 million liters of deep well water, which they bottled and sold under the names Dasani and BonAqua. The groundwater was severely depleted, affecting thousands of communities with water shortages and destroying agricultural activity. As a result, the remaining water became contaminated with high chloride and bacteria levels, leading to scabs, eye problems, and stomach aches in the local population.
Suez-Lyonnaise Des Eaux (SLDE)The privatization of water has had a disastrous impact on the human right to clean water, and the French company Suez is the worst perpetrator of this abuse. The company’s billions of dollars in profit come at the expense of poor people living in countries where thousands lack access to potable water, and, because of private water contracts, are also facing skyrocketing water prices.
Suez goes by many names around the world–Ondeo, SITA and others–to mask its worldwide net of controversial activities. In Manila, Philippines, after seven years of water privatization under a Suez company (Maynilad Water) contract, studies showed that water rates increased in some neighborhoods by 400 to 700 percent. These studies also showed that the negligence of the company resulted in cholera and gastroenteritis outbreaks that killed six people and severely sickened 725 in Manila’s Tondo district.
In Bolivia, a Suez company (Aguas de Illimani) left 200,000 people without access to water and caused a revolt when it tried to charge between $335 and $445 to connect a private home to the water supply. Countless people were unable to afford this charge in a country whose yearly per capita GDP is $915.
Unfortunately, the IMF and World Bank are playing a key role in pushing water privatization all over the world. Many countries have been required to open up their water supply to private companies as a condition for receiving IMF loans, and the World Bank has approved millions of dollars in loans for the privatization of water systems.
Bob Morris @ Dec 17th 2005 08:52 - Category: Water ;
Hong Kong — Activists gathered here say that no issue highlights the tension between the human values they advocate and the economic logic of the legion of corporate globalizers that have descended on this city more clearly than water.
Water is viewed as one of the last "profit centers" by the international financial institutions and trade can impact whether it becomes a commodity or stays in public hands — 90 percent of the world’s water supplies remain in the public trust. Most notably water’s on the table with the privatization of municipal water systems being aggressively pushed under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), a wide-ranging treaty that covers a host of services, both public and private.
Do you trust the Enrons of the world to manage your water? I didn’t think so…
Bob Morris @ Dec 10th 2005 07:58 - Category: Water ;
Did you know that more than one billion people do not have access to clean water, that over 40 percent of the world’s population lives in places under water stress and that bottled water companies get checked just once every six years?
"I believe it should be fundamentally illegal to privatize basic human needs," said Oppenheim, a Northampton resident and former journalism professor who became suspicious of "public-private" partnerships in the ’70s. "Privatization is taxation without representation."
"When you get a whiff of privatization, you should immediately mobilize," said Oppenheim. "Privatization runs counter to democratic values in this country."
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