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