World Water Forum A Huge Disappointment

World Water Forum Pledges Action But Rift Over Statement

What a disappointment this World Water Forum turned out to be. In the final language of the closing statement water was declared a "need" and not a right. This is clearly language intended to benefit the corporate sponsors of the World Water Forum that now see a great opportunity ahead of them in making profit from the water scarcity facing many areas of the world due to agricultural waste, population growth, and now climate change which is causing more severe and sustained droughts.

There is absolutely no credibility to this event as long as it chooses to refrain from declaring water a human right. Any resources needed by a species to sustain it's life is a right. To deny that right is to deny the very life and existence of that species. It is beyond comprehension how any countries would even stand in the way of declaring water a human right, but at this conference three nations did and one of them was the U.S. It is not hard to understand why with Nestle, Coca Cola, Pepsi, and other companies now looking to make more profit off this crisis. I suspect Dow as well was hoping for this ending as they wait to be able to build monstrous desalination plants around the world that will only exacerbate climate change. Conservation, declaring water a human right, and really doing what is morally right for the developing world and all of us do not seem to be what this forum is about.

By 2030 it is estimated that 2/3 of this world may well be without access to freshwater, and that does not necessarily mean in all cases due to it not being there... remember, toxification of our freshwater resources by these very companies as well as others is also decreasing the amount of potable water that can be used. If you were to fill a one gallon bucket with water, only a tablespoon is what would represent the amount of freshwater available to the world at this point.

Just where are we going then with privitization looking to be the way we all get our water in a world with rising population and decreasing resources? To some the thought of war over water seems incomprehensible. I can only hope they are right, but looking at the landscape of the world and the forces working to control the very resource that sustains all life on Earth I would say the chance of war over water is very real. Especially if we continue to have forums like this one that are simply as Maude Barlow phrased it, "trade shows" for the water companies that sponsor them.