Water Flowing Back Into Public Hands

Water Flowing Back Into Public Hands

The announcement by the Paris municipality that water services will return to public hands by 2010 is in line with a global trend of ending privatisation of such services. Mayor Bertrand Delanoë announced Jun. 2 that the municipal administration would regain control of all water services for the city, ending a private monopoly that has lasted more than 100 years.

The contracts with the world’s two biggest water service companies, Suez and Veolia, will not be extended after Dec. 31, 2009. “We want to offer a better service, at a better price,” Delanoë said. “We also promise that prices would be stable.” Delanoë said his administration will encourage other municipalities in the Ile de France region around Paris to end privatisation of water services.

“That France, once known as the heartland of water privatisation, is embracing a return to public management of water services, is a strong signal in this new pattern,” Olivier Hoedeman of the Water Remunicipalisation Tracker told IPS. The group, a sub-division of the Amsterdam-based Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and the Transnational Institute, documents the decline of water privatisation.

end of excerpt.
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A victory! This is good news and a good trend we need to see across the globe. Water is a public trust. Hopefully, the information put out about the effects of water privitization has helped this along. This is just the beginning.

Flood Waters Ravage Illinois and Iowa

Fears for Mississippi River as flood hit Iowa cleans up


Officials warily eyed the mighty Mississippi Monday swollen by days of flooding as waterlogged Iowan towns began a massive clean-up with damage set to run into billions of dollars.
With some 2,500 National Guard already deployed across the state trying to keep the floodwaters at bay, experts believe the Mississippi, the country's second longest river, could crest either Tuesday or Wednesday.


Iowa Governor Chet Culver warned the Mississippi would be the next battleground, as floodwaters from the state's Cedar, Iowa and Des Moines rivers poured into it.
"It's likely we'll see major flooding in every city on the border, from New Boston on down. We're very concerned about that," he said late Sunday.


The massive river, which passes through 10 states in its 3,734-kilometer (2,320-mile) journey from its source in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico, defines the border between Iowa and Illinois.


Parts of Illinois are already under water, and officials there are bracing for the same kind of misery heaped on homes and businesses in Iowa, where 36,000 people have been evacuated, most from the town of Cedar Rapids.


"While this is a trying time for our state, every Iowan should know this: together, we will rebuild," Culver said Sunday, before touring the devastated areas on Monday.
More than 11 million people in nine midwestern states have been affected by the flooding and extreme weather of recent weeks, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.
Iowa was by the far the hardest hit: 83 of its 99 counties have been declared disaster areas and more than 4.8 million sandbags were laid down to try to stem the tide.


Seventeen people have died as a result of the floods in Iowa since the start of the extreme weather on May 25, adding to another five deaths in neighboring states.


"It's some of the worst flooding I've seen since (Hurricane) Katrina" which hit New Orleans in August 2005, FEMA director David Paulison told CNN after touring the damage in Iowa.
Losses will likely be greater than they were in heavy floods which hit in 1993, experts told the Des Moines Register, when the damage and lost business from widespread flooding totaled about 2.1 billion dollars.


Some 750 million dollars worth of property, mostly homes, has already been swallowed by the waters in Cedar Rapids.


"We're talking two billion dollars to three billion to get this place back on its feet," Lee Clancey, president of Cedar Rivers chamber of commerce, told the newspaper after 400 blocks were submerged in the town.

end of excerpt.

This is a tragedy for the Midwest and the country. How ironic that the entry below this one speaks of drought in California. It is said the floods happening now are worse than what was experienced in the last great Midwest flood. This combined with drought, glacier melt, and other weather anomolies in the United States and around the world speaks as a harbinger of global warming. Water and the lack of it are proving to be the overriding force in this world. Have we gotten the message yet?

NASA Images: Floods In Iowa

Drought Declared In California

http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html

The dryness continued this past week for the entire Southwest and most of California. This was somewhat tempered by cooler-than-normal temperatures that occurred across the Great Basin, Arizona, and California as well. New Mexico saw an expansion of D2 to the west across the extreme southern counties of the state. Precipitation has been pretty dismal for most time frames out to the Water Year (October 1), with only 25-50% of normal being reported in that period. In California, many locations recorded a record or near-record dry spring.

In fact, on June 4, Governor Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought. On the heels of last winter’s low totals, the water strain has been increased after a disappointing finish to this winter. Final snow water content levels statewide were only around 67% of average and thus streamflow runoff forecasts are only calling for a little more than 50% of normal. As a result of the past 90 days, D0 and D1 have pushed north up the valley and along the coast north of Santa Barbara up to Eureka.

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If you consolidate all of the areas that are colored on this map together, that constitutes approximately 45 to 50% of the land mass of this country being in some state of drought. For those who think this only happens in Africa or some place else on the other side of the world, it doesn't. Drought can strike anywhere water has been wasted, mismanaged, and where the effects of climate change and overpopulation are making themselves felt the worst.

According to the IPCC, the Southwest US is one of the areas predicted to be experiencing severe drought due to climate change. And yet, our Congress plays games regarding this crisis as if we have time to continue to squabble over whether it even exists. With water tables in rivers throughout America falling, including and predominantly The Great Lakes, The Colorado River, and Lake Mead which serves Nevada and this area in drought, people must wake up to what their wasteful practices are doing to the environment.

Population increases in this area without proper water management have also led to this stage. We either conserve now, or we will see just how much taking this resource for granted can do to change not only our way of life, but life as we know it.

Is Water Becoming The New Oil?

Is Water Becoming The New Oil?

Public fountains are dry in Barcelona, Spain, a city so parched there’s a €9,000 ($13,000) fine if you’re caught watering your flowers. A tanker ship docked there this month carrying 5 million gallons of precious fresh water – and officials are scrambling to line up more such shipments to slake public thirst.

Barcelona is not alone. Cyprus will ferry water from Greece this summer. Australian cities are buying water from that nation’s farmers and building desalination plants. Thirsty China plans to divert Himalayan water. And 18 million southern Californians are bracing for their first water-rationing in years.

Water, Dow Chemical Chairman Andrew Liveris told the World Economic Forum in February, “is the oil of this century.” Developed nations have taken cheap, abundant fresh water largely for granted. Now global population growth, pollution, and climate change are shaping a new view of water as “blue gold.”

Water’s hot-commodity status has snared the attention of big equipment suppliers like General Electric as well as big private water companies that buy or manage municipal supplies – notably France-based Suez and Aqua America, the largest US-based private water company.

Global water markets, including drinking water distribution, management, waste treatment, and agriculture are a nearly $500 billion market and growing fast, says a 2007 global investment report.

But governments pushing to privatize costly to maintain public water systems are colliding with a global “water is a human right” movement. Because water is essential for human life, its distribution is best left to more publicly accountable government authorities to distribute at prices the poorest can afford, those water warriors say.

“We’re at a transition point where fundamental decisions need to be made by societies about how this basic human need – water – is going to be provided,” says Christopher Kilian, clean-water program director for the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation. “The profit motive and basic human need [for water] are just inherently in conflict.”

Will “peak water” displace “peak oil” as the central resource question? Some see such a scenario rising.

end of excerpt.

My comments;

This is a scenario that some including myself have been warning about for the last twenty years. The prognsosis that increasing population and lack of proper maintenance of infrastructure along with destructive corporate policies that pollute and waste this precious resource will culminate to bring us to a point where there will not be enough potable water to sustain this world's population.

And as with the warnings given by many including Al Gore regarding the climate crisis for the last thirty years, we are just now coming to a consciousness that this is indeed a global emergency that needs our attention and action. Why does it take so long for us to come to these ephiphanies? Is it politics? Or is it the desire of the human species to simply resign itself to not taking responsibility for its own actions?

The water justice movement in this world is now just starting to make headway with bringing people to that consciousness regarding water and the impending repercussions we will most certainly face upon not giving this crisis the attention and action it deserves on a global scale. Drought (caused by waste but now also caused predominantly by climate change and the burning of fossil fuels at a rapacious pace unprecedented) is a silent killer that is creeping across this planet very stealthily in search of more land to suck dry, which is now putting the lives of millions in the Horn of Africa and in other parts of this world including the United States at risk. And in that process, where will that leave the poorest in our world? At the mercy of corporate conglomerates that will charge them unsurious rates to have a substance they cannot live without? How can anyone claim this is even moral let alone legal?

Water is a human right. It sustains our lives. Without it we would die. To have corporations and governments telling us whether or not we can have that resource and what we must pay to have it is beyond the boundaries of morality and human dignity. Yet, this is happening now with this issue which is so important to the very sustenance of human beings given little to no weight in political platforms, the media, or in every day discussion.

Have we truly become so distracted with the frivolous and mundane that the very issues that decide our ability to survive have become frivolous and mundane to us? When a child dies from a waterborne disease brought on by a lack of sewerage facilities, is that not a reflection on the moral character of the human species? When a young woman has to go without an education because she needs to walk 9 hours a day to fetch water that is polluted thus putting herself in mortal danger of rape, robbery and even death, is that not a reflection on the moral character of the human species? When we see the steady decline of Democracy because multi-national companies with money and back door political associations buy policy and get away with it because of our apathy, is that not a reflection of the moral character of the human species?

If governments and multi-nationals have their way, water will become a commodity to trade like oil and pork bellies. It will be reduced to something that only the rich can afford and many will die because of it. It is not only imperative that the water justice movement then continue to be vocal about this gross injustice to the poorest in our world, but also imperative that we, every citizen in America and elsewhere who treasures this most precious resource speak out for water being declared a human right to make it known to those who seek to use it for their own profit that it will not be tolerated any longer. We are at a crossorads as a species. The future of water is our future.

Message From The Pulitzer Center

The Pulitzer Center is holding the Pulitzer Center Global Issues/Citizen Voices contest on Helium.com, an online writing website. The contest is calling for independent voices to answer questions based on our international reporting. Our latest contest has a question that might interest you and your readership. The question is: How is the struggle for water, such as in Ethiopia and Kenya, shaping conflicts in this century? The deadline to enter is May 30. To enter, visitors can just click on a question above and submit an essay to Helium. Essays will be judged by other Helium users and staff here at the Pulitzer Center.
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If interested, please visit their site at the link in the sidebar here.

Spain's Pervasive Drought A Crisis

Spain's Drought: A Glimpse At Our Future?

Barcelona is a dry city. It is dry in a way that two days of showers can do nothing to alleviate. The Catalan capital's weather can change from one day to the next, but its climate, like that of the whole Mediterranean region, is inexorably warming up and drying out. And in the process this most modern of cities is living through a crisis that offers a disturbing glimpse of metropolitan futures everywhere.

Its fountains and beach showers are dry, its ornamental lakes and private swimming pools drained and hosepipes banned. Children are now being taught how to save water as part of their school day. This iconic, avant-garde city is in the grip of the worst drought since records began and is bringing the climate crisis that has blighted cities in Australia and throughout the Third World to Europe. A resource that most Europeans have grown up taking for granted now dominates conversation. Nearly half of Catalans say water is the region's main problem, more worrying than terrorism, economic slowdown or even the populists' favourite – immigration.

The political battles now breaking out here could be a foretaste of the water wars that scientists and policymakers have warned us will be commonplace in the coming decades. The emergency water-saving measures Barcelona adopted after winter rains failed for a second year running have not been enough. The city has had to set up a "water bridge" and is shipping in water for the first time in the history of this great maritime city.

A tanker from Marseilles with 36 million litres of drinking water unloaded its first cargo this week, one of a mini-fleet contracted to bring water from the Rhone every few days for at least the next three months. So humbled was Barcelona when prolonged drought forced it to ship in domestic water from Tarragona, 50 miles south along the Catalan coast, 12 days ago, that city hall almost delayed shipment and considered an upbeat publicity campaign to lift morale and international prestige.

The whole country is suffering from its worst drought in 40 years and the shipments from Tarragona prompted an outcry from regions who insist they need it more. For now the clashes are being soothed by intervention from Madrid, and plans to ship water from desalination plants in parched Almeria in Andalusia are shelved until October. But there is little indication of a strategy to deal not just with an immediate emergency but an ongoing crisis. Buying water on an epic scale from France has given the controversy an international aspect as French environmentalists question whether such a scarce natural resource should be sold as a commodity to another country.
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As I continue to read daily about this global crisis, it is obvious the pattern that has emerged throughout the world is the one that has been coming and warned about for years. Countries whether rich or poor are experiencing severe repercussions environmentally, and these effects are most pronounced regarding drought and water scarcity.

And once again we are seeing the truth about human nature which knows no nationality, race, creed, or political persuasion: We don't understand the urgency of the situation we are creating by our behavior until it begins to affect our lives. Are we then truly incapable as human beings of conserving freshwater? Of doing the right thing for our future? Of caring for those who live a world away? Has our society worldwide become so consumptive, selfish, and greedy, that even in the face of repercussions that threaten our very lives we will not change?

We are wasting the very substance that sustains our lives as if it will always be there. It won't. And if we as a species are going to ever survive this challenge, we must wake up to the reality surrounding our behavior that is contributing to the global water crisis.

And it will require:

Education. Education. Education.

Moral strength.

Moral will.

Moral conviction.

Then after that:

Global cooperation with water scarcity and waste being one of the main issues covered in any new global climate treaty that also prohibits making water a commodity to be sold at the expense of the right of humans to access to it. To commoditize it will only exacerbate inequality in its distribution which will lead to war.

Finally considering population in the developing world as one of the chief factors in any water policy and looking to educate people about family planning.

Effective water management being mandatory and enforced with particular emphasis on water footprints of nations being used to determine water policy much like carbon caps.

Effective water catchement and conservation techniques being taught to people in countries experiencing the worst droughts.

Agricultural methods such as drip irrigation that allow for the least amount of water to be used to grow crops without waste, with an emphasis on less water intensive crops being planted in areas with more severe conditions so that at least those who farm will still have an income to rely on.

Standing up to corporations that continue to privatize water for a profit, especially in poor countries in Africa, South America, and Asia.

Mandatory clean up of rivers and other waterways required with penalties assessed for those who do not comply. *Corporations must be made accountable for their actions.* Willfully polluting a river or other freshwater resource to save money knowing that such resources sustain humans and other species should be seen as an act of negligence punishable by law.

***All of us coming together to mitigate the amount of greenhouse gases we spew into the atmosphere that are making the conditions that cause drought.***

Declaring access to potable water a human right that is not to be commoditized at the expense of the weak and the poor, with an emphasis on holding companies like Coca Cola, Nestle, and private companies like Thames Water, American Water, Suez, Vivendi and other companies to stringent standards regarding price and quality. There must also be the threat of penalty for gouging customers or using the climate crisis as a vehicle to raise prices beyond what is needed to maintain water infrastructure.

However, can we do this? Are we capable as a species of coming together to do what needs to be done to ensure our continued survival? Is greed truly an overriding quality of human nature that cannot be overcome for the good of us and this planet?

Only through education and action will we know the answer to those questions and they must be answered because time is running out while we continue to look the other way while taking our most precious resource for granted.

Six Million Children Threatened By Drought In Ethiopia

Six Million Children Threatened By Drought In Ethiopia

Severe drought in Ethiopia threatens up to six million children, the United Nations children's agency warned on Tuesday.

"Up to six million children under five years of age are living in impoverished, drought-prone districts and require continuation of urgent preventive health and nutrition interventions," UNICEF said in a statement.

The agency added that 126,000 children were already suffering from severe malnutrition and needed urgent therapeutic care.

In addition to some eight million people characterised as "food insecure" and supported by a government programme, aid agencies are warning that over 3.4 million people require food aid in several central and southern regions.

"Widespread drought, poor rainy seasons, heavy loss of livestock, limited food supply and soaring prices of food, fuel and fertilizer linked to the global food crisis are contributing to the troubled outlook of children in Ethiopia," the statement added.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was seeking 147 million dollars (94 million euros) to tackle a shortage of 183,000 metric tons of food to meet the country's needs.

The appeal includes 29 million dollars required to fill gaps in provisions of "blended food", a mix of soya and corn powder for malnourished children.

"The mechanisms and capacity to prevent and respond to the increase of severe acute malnutrition are in place but are under resourced," Bjorn Ljungqvist, UNICEF representative in Ethiopia, was quoted as saying.

UNICEF had recently hailed Ethiopia as "exemplary" for its efforts in curbing infant mortality rates.

"Ethiopia has some great gains in curbing child mortality, but they would be completely wiped out by events like this," Viviane Van Steirteghem, UNICEF's deputy representative, told AFP.
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This is heartbreaking. Not only because this is happening to children, but because it is totally preventable. There are no longer any words to express my outrage at what is going on in this world. I cannot fathom the total lack of tolerance, intelligence, and planning on the part of governments. I cannot tolerate the absolute disregard for human beings by other human beings, and the conditions we exacerbate still knowing full well what is causing them with the ability to stop them. How does one who cares so deeply for the children of this world read something like this and not feel helpless?

These poor people are kept in total poverty for the benefit of organizations like The World Bank, and yes, even the UN, and I find it appalling. For all of the talk we hear year after year after year about eradicating poverty, famine, and water scarcity and pollution which are causing the diseases plaguing the developing world, we get little to no results in addressing it. For all of the money thrown at it we get little to no results.

This is simply so pervasive and so overwhelming in scope that it is beyond human comprehension. We as a species will never be able to live down what we have done to despoil not only this planet but our own species and those that have no voice. And the children... the innocent children who have known nothing but hunger, disease, and despair. What of them? Where is their hope? Where is their food? Where is their water? Where is the education to show them how to plant and build a life for themselves instead of depending on The World Bank and other bloodsucking organizations that loan them money they can never repay back thus keeping the cycle of poverty and inequality going round? Are they to now only be the focus of the media just to get ratings?

All I can say is, thanks to organizations like Doctors Without Borders these children will at least have a chance to get proper medical care and food. I have come to conclusion however, that governments around this world for all their talk are simply too corrupt, selfish, and inadequate to address the crises we face adequately with the moral fortitude necessary to conquer them.

NO CHILD IN THIS WORLD SHOULD GO HUNGRY OR THIRSTY. And to think we have all we need to make sure that doesn't happen but yet it still does is a shameful reflection on all of us.

Drought In Ethiopia/NASA Earth Observatory

As this map shows, this drought is pervasive and sustained.