From
the Middle East to South America to Los Angeles to
Australia, water is becoming a central political and
economic issue. This is because water, which is a
basic human requirement, has become a scarce resource.
However, some major MNCs, backed by multilateral institutions,
have seized this opportunity to push through their
agenda of treating water like any tradable commodity
and making profit out of it. This is evident in the
ongoing services negotiations at the WTO, as well
as from the draft "Johannesburg Declaration"
being discussed at the World Summit for Sustainable
Development. Encapsulating the future of water, the
Fortune magazine has noted, " water promises
to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th
century: the precious commodity that determines wealth
of nations". In this context, it is important
to note that there is a growing social movement worldwide
to protect water as a common resource.
A few articles highlighting these issues can be accessed
through the following sites
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&s=barlow
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020902&s=hightower
http://www.vshiva.net/JalSwaraj.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/26/international/americas
/26WATE.html?ex=1031345294&ei=1&en=5c3e54c0f927f654
August 24, 2002. |