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Clean, Clear Water, as God Intended?
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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: September 10, 2006
Latest Update: Setpember 10, 2006
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
Protecting and Sharing Earth's WaterClean, Clear Water, as God Intended?
Or did God intend that those who could should make great profits so that humans should advance ever further in building golden thrones and conspicuously consumed jewels and baubles?
Or is there no god and only profit to guide us ever further into the disappearing wilderness?
Most of us accept water as part of our natural environment, free to all of us. But that is a situated interpretation, meaning that we have come to that conclusion only because we live in the situation of a developed country with clean water delivery systems for sanitation, health, and the support of our water needs for food growing and wilderness protection and entertainment.
For much of the world, water is not free and available to all. Some of that is because of desert areas in which little rain falls. But some of this lack of water is man's (generic) doing. Some governments have never managed or maybe never tried to bring clean water to the dryer spots, even though the Romans did it ever so long ago. (Roman Aqueducts.
In this topic we once again meet the tension between equality and authority. The equality to which we refer is the right to the rainwater the heavens pour down on us. There were fights about this in the US in the Old West, when some ranchers dammed rivers and forbid access to other ranchers. Undoubtedly you'll find more instances in world history. Someone claims the right to all the water he wants, and if he has enough power, economic or gunpower to enforce his claim, others go without water. He becomes the authority, for he has enough power to enforce his rule.
Where do equality and authority come into the situation today? Take a look at the Bechtel claim that it had privatized water in Bolivia. It's complex, and I'll have to put up a summary for you later. But lots of references are available below until I have time to write. Let's inform people of this. Our community needs to know that no human right is sacred before civil or governmental authority with the power to take that right away.
Note that Bechtel lost it's $50 million dollar suit against Bolivia, before the tribunal of the World Bank. Bolivia and the right to water for all humans won, . . . for NOW.
Please help build a community that is AWARE.
Discussion Questions
- How could you possibly privatize water?
Consider that water, to be stored for use as needed must have a means of distribution. Look at the references on Roman aqueducts, which were build, long even before the Romans, to distribute fresh water. Poor countries, and Bolivia is one of the poorest, often don't have the resources to build and maintain such infrastructures. Take a look at how many people had to work how long to deep the aqueducts functional.
If a country's designated leader makes a contract with a private world-wide corporation to build such an infrastructure, and cannot pay for it, even before the infrastructure is finished, the corporation can claim (whether validly is arguable) that the country must pay it, and that the people cannot set up their own small local infrastructures to collect the rainwater which should rightly, according to the contract, be collected and distributed (for corporate profit) by the corporation. Then, all of a sudden, Becthel owns the rain, folks, at least according to their claim. jeanne
- How does this issue matter to community-buiding, to criminal justice, to ethnic and racial relations?
Consider that unless you happen to be a Bolivian, you're not likely in our local communities to be aware of this human rights crisis over who owns the rain that took place between 1998 and 2006. If someone suggests that Bechtel might claim to own the rain in L.A. you'd laugh. Well, if Mayor Villaraigosa gave Bechtel a no-bid contract to take over the supply of water to L.A., and it raised the cost of water by 30%, as it did in Bolivia, because the infrastructure was in such bad condition from the previous water company, some of us might have a little trouble paying for our rain. There is always the lesson that that which is done to the least of us, can be done to all of us. Small towns across America are learning that we must become aware of how privatization works.
Same thing holds true in criminal justice. Privatization in corrections carries major import for human rights, labor force issues, and any focus that may yet survive on rehabilitating both the humans and the communities that have fallen prey to crime in situations not so different from those experienced by the poor of other countries.
Does race and ethnicity have to be considered in this complex mix? Well, just consider that Bolivia has the highest rate of indigenous people in Latin America.
- Situated knowledge. What is it in this case?
Consider that the facts we focus on and the way we interpret them is based on which situation we're in. If we're indigenous people in Bolivia, and Bechtel says it owns our rain and we can't have it, we're likely to remember old indigenous practices and rituals and a time when Bechtel's infrastructure was as alien to us a Roman aqueduct. Our knowledge is "situated" in a different time, different place, with a different memory and a different culture to guide us.
If we're stockholders in Bechtel, we're likely to look at how much has been spent by the company on the part of the infrastructure that has been repaired, and be angry that sometimes the Bolivians were uncooperative in helping us complete the work more efficiently, and that they didn't want to pay us, when we were only demanding reasonable profits for all we had done. Our knowledge is technological, rational, aware of costs and the bottom line, and that we invested our efforts and money to make money, not to help people who are ungrateful even when you try to help them build a modern country. Our situated knowledge is very, very different from theirs. Get the picture?
Then consider that we are white middle class Americans in the 21st Century, and that they are indigenous people in a poor land that has been exploited for the better part of several centuries by people just like us. Get the picture.
To effectively communicate with one another from our very different situations, it is essential that we help one another understand our positioning with respect to the situation. Note that William Finnegan does not write about Bolivian indigenous people from New York City. He goes to spend time amongst them to understand and be able to relay to us what their situatedness is like. All good jouranlists do that. That's one of the wonderful advantages of such a career. You get to see situations up close and in the midst of their reality, which is hard to grasp virtually or from many thousand miles away.
Things like age, where we live, what we do for a living, the culture that we have embraced for most of our lives, all these things alter the situation from which we perceive issues. As you try to share your awareness of the water crisis with others, don't just tell them your perception. Tiotol them a little. Ask questions about their perceptions, see how they are reacting to the ideas you present, try to imagine how they might react to Bechtel. You might even try this out on a Bechtel employee. How would he/she react to our presentation of water crises and Bechtel's role in same?
- What's Water for People?
Check it out. It's a project undertaken by Pepsi and Starbucks to contribute five cents of every $1.80 you spend on Ethos Water to the Water for People project which helps fund undertakings like Bechtel's in Bolivia, but with some recognition of the country's poverty, and no attempt to commandeer their rainwater. Their site points out how women are disadvantaged in poor countries by having to carry clean water long distances because there is no infrastructure for delivering it. That task takes a considerable portion of their day and their energy, and leaves them little time for outside work and/or caring for their families.
Of course, given my positionality, I'd like to know why the contribution is five cents of the $1.80 cost. Why couldn't I drink a little L.A. tap water and send them the whole $1.80???? jeanne, kvetching as usual. (to kvetch - Yiddish for "to complain")
References:
- Water for People Site Lots of information here on the problems many countries are facing with affording clean water for their people. But chances are you won't hear about Bechtel's suing Bolivia or many of the other attempts to declare ownership of water, and then sell it back to the indigenous people, with the infrastructure the company has added, even when the infrastructure is incomplete and doesn't reach poorer sections of the country.
- Bechtel Vs. Bolivia. The Bolivian Water Revolt
About the Democracy Center Google water for people for much more information on water issues.- Cochabamba and the Aguas del Tunari Consortium Bechtel's position on March 2005.
- Timeline: Cochabamba Water Revolt Frontline. Gives succinct history. Public roadcasting Service,
- Leasing the Rain. By William Finnegan William Finnegan writes for the New Yorker. Years ago, it was through some of his articles that I came to learn of Bantu education in South Africa. He's a great journalist, if you happen to share my values. jeanne
"The world is running out of fresh water, and the fight to control it has begun."In this "Letter from Bolivia" New Yorker correspondent William Finnegan describes the intersection of global freshwater shortages and efforts to privatize utilities in third world countries. After hearing news of the Cochabamba water revolts, Finnegan traveled to Bolivia "to find out how the global water business looks from ground."
- BechteL vs. Bolivia: Riley Bechtel’s Response Democracy Center Site.
- Bechtel vs. Bolivia by Jim Schultz. An Open Letter To Mr. Riley Bechtel Chairman and CEO, Bechtel Enterprises.
- Bechtel vs. Bolivia In January 2006, Bechtel loses $50 million dollar law suit against Bolivia. On the Democracy Center Site.
