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www.projectcensored.org<\/a><\/p>\n \tImagine, that we are beyond the energy crisis – in that we are used to paying double or triple prices for what in the previous century was a small part of the family budget. But now we are faced with a new shortage that taps another precious resource. Water only comes through the tap four hours a day and we are forced to pay ten to hundred times what we paid in the 90s.<\/p>\n \tWelcome to the world of privatized water, where fresh water is treated like a commodity, traded and sold in the international market to the highest bidder.<\/p>\n \tNo longer can you assume a God-given right to drink from a mountain spring, but instead you will have to pay a toll to drink from Enron Springs, Monsanto Wells or receive tap water from Bechtel Water Works.<\/p>\n \tGlobal consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of human population growth. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people already lack access to fresh drinking water. If current trends persist, by 2025 the demand for fresh water is expected to rise by 56 percent more than the amount of water that is currently available.<\/p>\n \tMultinational corporations recognize these trends and are trying to monopolize water supplies around the world. Monsanto, Bechtel, Enron and other global multinationals are seeking control of world water systems and supplies.<\/p>\n \tThe World Bank recently adopted a policy of water privatization and full-cost water pricing. This policy is causing great distress in many Third World countries, which fear that their citizens will not be able to afford for-profit water.<\/p>\n \tLast year in a little known case of high scale international water marketing, a supertanker was reported to have filled up with water from Lake Erie and after paying the Canadian Government, they shipped the water to Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n \tMaude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest public advocacy group, states, "Governments around the world must act now to declare water a fundamental human right and prevent efforts to privatize, export, and sell for profit a substance essential to all life. Research has shown that selling water on the open market only delivers it to wealthy cities and individuals. The finite sources of freshwater (less than one half of one per cent of the world's total water stock) are being diverted, depleted, and polluted so fast that, by the year 2025, two-thirds of the world's population will be living in a state of serious water deprivation."<\/p>\n \tGovernments are signing away their control over domestic water supplies by participating in trade treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and in institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO). These agreements give transnational corporations the unprecedented right to the water of signatory companies.<\/p>\n \tMonsanto plans to earn revenues of $420 million and a net income of $63 million by 2008 from its water business in India and Mexico. Monsanto estimates that water will become a multibillion-dollar market in the coming decades.<\/p>\n \tThis international water crisis news story was selected by over 150 faculty and student researchers at Sonoma State University's Project Censored in California as the number one most censored news story for 2000.<\/p>\n \tCredit for original reporting goes to: International Forum on Globalization: \tIn These Times, Water Fallout: Bolivians Battle Globalization 5\/15\/00 by \tCanadian Dimension, 2\/2000, Monsanto's Billion-Dollar Water Monopoly<\/p>\n \tPlans by Vandana Shiva www.purefood.org\/Monsanto\/waterfish.cfm<\/a><\/p>\n \tCanadian Dimension, 2\/00, Water Fallout, by Jim Shultz<\/p>\n \tSan Francisco Bay Guardian, 5\/31\/00, Trouble on Tap, by Daniel Zoll www.sfbg.com\/News\/34\/35\/bech2.html<\/a><\/p>\n \tSan Francisco Bay Guardian, 5\/31\/00, The Earth Wrecker, by Pratap \tPeter Phillips is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State \tPeter Phillips Ph.D. Sociology Department\/Project Censored http:\/\/www.projectcensored.org<\/a><\/p>\n \tSonoma State University < www.projectcensored.org Imagine, that we are beyond the energy crisis – in that we are used to paying double or triple prices for what in the previous century was a small part of the family budget. But now we are … Continue reading
\n\tSpecial Report 6\/99, The Global Water Crisis and the Commodification of
\n\tthe World's Water Supply by Maude Barlow www.ifg.org\/bgsummary.html<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\tJim Shultz www.inthesetimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\tChatterjee.<\/p>\n
\n\tUniversity and Director of Project Censored. Research for this story is
\n\tfrom the book Censored 2001, 25th Anniversary Edition, scheduled for
\n\trelease in March of this year from Seven Stories Press.<\/p>\n
\n\t1801 East Cotati Ave.
\n\tRohnert Park, CA 94928
\n\t707-664-2588<\/p>\n
\n\tFAIR USE NOTICE
\n\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"