Do we ever wonder how "water" has lost its identity? It isn't a free resource anymore; it's something you pay for. And this is important because we must know who pays how much for what...I've been reading a lot about water privatisation lately, and I'm forced to admit that there's a lot of confusion around. Some say it's bad. Some say it's the only way the poor are going to get safe drinking water and general sanitation at affordable tarrifs. How does one ever really know? Is there a solution to this at all? The only thing that bothers me is that I, who can afford modest luxuries, pay less for water than the poor man who doesn't have clothes to cover his body. It's not just a little disturbing.
It is my humble request to everyone who reads this post to please, please, PLEASE check out this link:
www.endwaterpoverty.org
Basically, 'End Water Poverty' is a campaign urging the G8 Nations to address the issue of water scarcity, poverty, etc. in the developing nations of the world, at the upcoming G8 summit at Berne, on June 8.
It takes just five minutes to sign up, and send across a brief message to the German Chancellor. Maybe it'll make a difference, maybe it won't...but five minutes is all it takes!!
7 comments:
That's true, the poor end up paying more for poor quality water than we do for ours. Thanks for the link, I'll pass it on.
I wish the letter to the Chancellor was ruder. Not so polite, at least.
I know! It really makes one skeptical. But you never really know how these things turn out. No harm trying, I guess...*sigh*, they should go the Indian way and do a dharna types at the summit...just saying!! And thanks for following the link. :)
The G8 and developed countries are all selfish little pigs themselves. And we could speak and plead and implore till we're blue in the face, but they're not going to sit up and take affirmative action till the problem comes around and bites them in their asses. They're nicely oblivious to the world's problems (to which they are the largest contributors) till they realise its going to affect them too, and then they blame the third world countries. Happened with the global warming issue and its still happening. Bah!
I know!! And then there's always this selfishness that blankets everything they do or say...even if they do decide to help, it'd be a loan or something. What's needed here is some good, old-fashioned humanity and not much else...Why is that so hard?
Ah. I worked on the issue of privatisation as well. In India itself there have been some cases of privatisation which have led to quite sad results. One was the case of Sheonath river in Chattisgarh. The government leased a portion of a river to a private company and now the people downstream are suffering. People cannot take water from the part of the river which has been leased out. The distribution networks have also been privatised in some places. Chandrapur in Maharashtra has privatised its water distribution and the consequences have been disastrous. Delhi also had its tryst this issue. If you can then check out the April 21, 2006 issue of Frontline. The cover story of that issue is privatisation of water.
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