Globaleyes

Water Distribution

By Bruce Guenther

This is the seventh in a series of articles on economic globalization sponsored by the Peace Ministries Program of Mennonite Central Committee Canada. The writers are young adult Canadians who are studying and thinking about globalization and who are seeking to make a difference.

 

 

In Alberta’s oil sands, every barrel of oil extracted requires about three barrels of water. One of those barrels of water is permanently lost from the water cycle and transformed into toxic waste. Despite the abundance of water available for oil extraction, 76 Aboriginal communities in Canada are on boil water advisories; nine of those communities are in Alberta.

Around the world, large dams and canals are constructed to divert water to needy urban centres, factories, agribusiness and hydroelectricity, while millions of people upstream are displaced. Meanwhile, poor women and children in many rural areas walk up to 4-5 hours to fetch water in heavy containers. In urban slums they spend hours waiting in line at unreliable standpipes. At present, 1.3 billion people lack access to clean water and 2.5 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation. A child dies every 15 seconds due to easily preventable water-related diseases.

Whether in Canada or Kenya, different communities, corporations and individuals compete over access to water.

"Water Wars?"

Many people and organizations have predicted that the 21st century will be the century of "water wars." It is often argued that booming population growth among the world’s poor, coupled with increased global consumption of water resources, will inevitably lead to deadly conflict over water.

Water resources are indeed limited, and concern over water management and access should be at the forefront of the development agenda. However, the "water wars" picture likely distorts reality. Though apocalyptic images of the "population bomb" and water “scarcity” are popular in the western imagination, these theories ignore the current distribution of water resources. The reality is that while Aboriginal people lack access to clean water, the oil sands turn water into waste. And while many rural farmers lack access to water to support their own families, large agribusiness can access water for exported food crops.

The question is not whether there is enough water but rather, who consumes the water and for what benefit? Water crises do not occur because of an absolute lack of water but rather as a result of skewed access to and control over such resources. It is important to talk about distribution – for whom is water scarce and why.

Water Privatization

When 20 percent of the world’s population consumes 80 percent of the world’s resources, we need to start asking whose interests are served by the “water wars” prophecy. Some people argue that the way to manage the problem of water scarcity is to privatize it. They insist that water, as a commodity to be bought and sold, is best managed by the market.

The argument for the privatization of water services is that it is more efficient and will allow for increased access through private investment by multinational water corporations. Institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund push for the privatization of water services as a means to provide good services to the poor at a fair price. They make loans to developing countries, particularly the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the condition that water services be privatized. But does privatization create increased access and equity of water distribution? The results are not inspiring.

Studies of water privatization in Sub-Saharan Africa have found that increased revenues from privatization are not reinvested in the improvement of water infrastructure. There are reports of high levels of water leakage, unimproved water quality, and decreased access by the poor due to price hikes.

In 1997, a “pro poor” contract was promised when water was privatized in La Paz and El Ato, Bolivia. In El Ato the contract with a French water conglomerate left between 160,000 and 200,000 people without access to water. After eight years of broken promises to expand services, the citizens of El Alto organized a three-day general strike. On January 11, 2005 the government promised to cancel the contract.

Meanwhile at the World Trade Organization, corporations and governments are quietly negotiating a new trade and investment treaty called the GATS – General Agreement on Trade in Services. Under this treaty, public services like healthcare, education, water and sanitation would be up for grabs.

But we don’t need to look to Bolivia to see the privatization of water - we just need to open our fridge. One fifth of the North American population depends solely on bottled water for their daily hydration. Companies such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo use water from the municipal tap system, charging around $1.50 for the “fresh spring” water that costs them less than a cent per bottle. Meanwhile, Nestle extracts ground water, while others import their water from abroad. Bottling water is another way of privatizing what is a public good, and distorting its equitable distribution.

What this wave of privatization ignores is that water is not a commodity, it is a common good. Access to water is a fundamental human right.

What can we do?

The setting of the Bible takes place in an area of the world where fresh water is sparse. Prophets of the Old Testament, as well as the book of Revelation, speak of a God who promises to give water to those in need. The book of Isaiah prophesies that God will provide for the poor, making the wilderness a pool of water.

As a church that proclaims to embody God’s kingdom, we are called to respond in the hope of God’s coming reign.

• We need to acknowledge and repent of our over-consumption of the world’s precious water resources.
• We can respond by reducing our water use by collecting rain run-off to water our gardens, using grey water for our toilets, purchasing appliances that minimize water usage, reducing our shower times, etc.
• We can also oppose the privatization of water by refusing to purchase bottled water and by advocating with our government to sign the international declaration on the right to water. See http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/action/campaign.asp
• We can also support MCC water projects in places such as Mexico, India, Bangladesh and Kenya.

Instead of fearing the prophesy of the "water wars", we need to embrace and embody God’s promise of meeting the needs of all who thirst.

References

Clarke, Tony. (2005). Inside the Bottle: An Expose on the Bottled Water Industry. Polaris Institute.

Mehta, Lyla. (2003). “Problems of Publicness and Access Rights: Perspectives from the Water Domain.” Providing Global Public Goods: Managing Globalization. ed. I. Kaul et. al. Oxford University Press.

 

Bruce Guenther is currently a MPhil student in Development Studies at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex in Brighton, UK. He has served as a human rights advocate with MCC Jamaica, as a program analyst for MCC Canada, and as a MCC Manitoba board member. Bruce is a member of Hope Mennonite Church, Winnipeg, MB and is originally from Saskatoon.

 

What is your ecological footprint? KAIROS Canada Polaris Institute Council of Canadians