IMC India - WATER: COMMON RESOURCE OR COMMODITY

WATER: COMMON RESOURCE OR COMMODITY
By Gopal Krishna 15/06/2002 At 04:37

A minimum of 40 liters per day of water is needed to meet basic human requirements on a daily basis. But a situation is arising where we will be paying so much that we can afford to buy only 40 milliliters of water to drink. Inefficient handling of water resources has led to the collapse of municipal infrastructure. The bureaucratic management of this scarce resource has ensured that per capita water availability in India is down to 2,200 cubic meters, from a high of 6,008 cubic meters some 50 years ago.

WATER: COMMON RESOURCE OR COMMODITY

From times immemorial water has been a common resource and it ought to remain so. But now its definition is being changed from it being a common resource to a commodity by the undemocratic financial institutions. This change is located within the altering socio-economic and political dynamics of our country. It is unclear as to how this resource will be shared by the urban and rural people once the process of ongoing commodification is complete. The innate mechanics of access to fresh water is being changed without citizen’s being briefed about its far-reaching consequences. It is a cause of grave concern that its commodification in the context of globalization, privatisation is taking place in the name of putting the delivery system in place. This is fast eroding its nature as a common resource. We need to explore as to what is the nature and status of water vis-à-vis its availability to the poor in the present context.
A minimum of 40 liters per day of water is needed to meet basic human requirements on a daily basis. But a situation is arising where we will be paying so much that we can afford to buy only 40 milliliters of water to drink. Inefficient handling of water resources has led to the collapse of municipal infrastructure. The bureaucratic management of this scarce resource has ensured that per capita water availability in India is down to 2,200 cubic meters, from a high of 6,008 cubic meters some 50 years ago. This is expected to plunge to an alarming low of 496 cubic meters per person per year in the next 25 years. In its backdrop, the mineral water bottle industry has seen as many as 180 players in the market selling as much as, 1000 million liters of water each year. The fact that 1.1 billion people lack access to adequate clean water is a reason for happiness for the growing water industry.
Amidst indifference towards resentment by civil society, privatisation of water is going on without any let down as our government is succumbing to donor pressure for facilitating privatisation of our water utilities. Even our national water policy is inching towards privatization ignoring the final written recommendations made by National Consultative Committee on Water which included Anna Hazare, Achyut Das, Vandana Shiva, Rajendra Singh and Mihir Shah.
Delhi’s water is all set be in the hands of a small company. Already some 30 cities in the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhara Pradesh and Rajasthan are bidding their respective municipal water supply to a handful of powerful multinational corporations specialising in water. Tirupur town in Tamilnadu and Hubli-Dharwad in Karnataka are also moving closer to privatisation of their water utilities.
In this backdrop does the current political and ecological understanding spell out the ramifications for all the citizens or is it merely yet another manifestation of shrinking space of our food chain at the behest of the undemocratic institutions which are sabotaging our common resources? Water, the very substratum of our existence is on sale-how are we to counter the ongoing monopolisation of our life-blood by the corporate houses?.

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Comments

This is so important

Li-an 15/06/2002 18:21

This issue is, I think, the most pressing in the world today. A while ago I read that a US multinational co. is acting to privatize India's water (Monsanto I believe) and I was scared witless that this should be allowed to happen. Amid all the turmoil, this is the most monstrous capitalist manuever I never thought to see. Will they drain Indian bodies of the 80% water content and sell that too? Lord help you, because unless there's bucks in it, those who can won't.

of course

osijekgreens - free movement 15/06/2002 23:14

dzzpsib@os.hinet.hr

i will be short

we have the same situation in Croatia. american corporations (Bechtel, ex Enron) came and started to devastate natural park to build highway. but it was just a mask, they (in cooperation with the Export-Import Bank - it's probably concern) made a project of privatising the water, that is below the highway.

in the beginning of the bushe's mandat, CIA reported him that one of the crisis in the world will be - Water.

it's the culmination of the neolibaralisation politics - buying the public-good.
they can buy everything, except human being.

South American examples

iris 04/04/2005 01:33

irisanne78@hotmail.com

Basic access to water is becoming a bigger issue every day. The World Bank has made water privatization part of its lending policy. Obviously, this is not always to the benefit of the people. How can it be when the companies are paying out dividends to shareholders instead of using the profits to improve access like a non-profit or public utility would have to.

However, there are also some examples of communities that have been able to stand up to the privatization trend. The people of Urugauy voted to amend their constitution to make water a common good, recognizing its necessity for life. In Bolivia, the people of Cochabamba took to the streets to protest the privatization of their water and their government was forced to rescind the contract. In Bogota, Colombia, the city bucked the privatization trend and about 90%of their residents have access to water and over 75% have sanitation services.

So, the situation is dire, but not hopeless.