Privatization of water on the doorstep (Indonesia)

[DuctapeFatwa]

Despite widespread public criticism and opposition to the water resource bill, legislators went ahead with the endorsement of the controversial draft on Thursday.

With the endorsement, water will effectively cease to be a social commodity as the bill transforms water into a commercial good, with the have-nots possibly in for a bleak future of having their rights to clean and affordable water denied, according to some critics.

A.M. Fatwa, a legislator from the National Mandate Party (PAN) who chaired the House plenary meeting that endorsed the draft, attempted to appease critics by saying that the bill could always be amended.

"We have a Constitutional Court to go to and we can always amend the bill; there is nothing set in stone," said Fatwa, a member of the Reform faction, one of two small factions that called for a delay in the endorsement.

http://www.asianewsnet.net/template.php?No=21907&logo_name=Business

[Zhade]

1. Absolutely horrific.

"Soylent Water is PEOPLE!"

This, which I knew was coming, sickens me. Without water, PEOPLE DIE. Period.

The world's elites are due for a major shake-up, and none too soon.

[4morewars]

2. It's happening here too !!!

Real quitely, it's happening all around us. This is one of the companies involved:

www.suez.fr/indexuk.htm

Supported by , guess who????
The WTO !!!! The IMF !!! and The WBO !!!

[NYC]

3. West Texans Sizzle Over Plans to Sell Their Water.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/11/national/11WATE.html?ex=1077426000&en=6fc567f966a18196&ei=5070

Angry West Texans and some state officials are demanding a halt to a deal that allows a group of politically well-connected Midland oilmen to tap the desert and sell billions of gallons of water from the state's public reserves.

The venture was advancing without announcement or competitive bidding by the powerful Texas General Land Office, which controls 20 million acres of public lands and the liquids and minerals beneath them.

The agency has never licensed private sale of its water. The eight-man water partnership, Rio Nuevo Ltd., seeks to be the first, pumping out and selling some 16 billion gallons a year to municipalities and ranchers in drought-parched far west Texas, where many people fear that their own wells could go dry as a result...

The proposed deal has raised a ruckus in this remote town of 6,000 and its Big Bend country sister communities Marfa and Marathon. Since the news leaked out two months ago, lawmakers and others have called on the land commissioner, Jerry Patterson, to avoid any action pending further examination...

The company also says it plans to invest $350 million in water pipes and pumps. Who would buy the water and at what cost is not yet clear, though a likely customer could be the City of El Paso. But Adrian Ocegueda, a spokesman for Mayor Joe Wardy of El Paso, said that studies of the impact on the water level should precede any deal.

A bipartisan State Senate subcommittee was formed to look into the matter, its five members writing Commissioner Patterson that "concerns remain about the lack of a formal process by which this, and any future proposals, will be evaluated and decided upon."

More at link.

[Fargin Ice Hole]

4. Bechtel tried to own the rights to rain water in bolivia..

Anyone that had a rain collecting device would have to pay royalties.


Found this.............
<http://www.pbs.org/now/science/bolivia.html>

[david_vincent]

5. Water is life

When water is privatized, people who can't afford it WILL FIGHT
to the death, since without water they're doomed anyway.
Speaking of idiotic schemes, does anyone recall the name of the
company that was formed several years ago with the purpose of
damming the Thompson River in B.C. - one of North America's
finest whitewater rivers - in order to send the water to southern
California, so that the glitterati could fill their swimming
pools? >you think I'm making this up, but I don't have the
imagination to make this stuff up!!

[Tinoire]

6. This should please the pro-NAFTA crowd since it's part of NAFTA

meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, some people are just thinking :wtf: again.

[aquart]

7. This should be outlawed by international treaty.

This is a truly criminal enterprise.

[Minstrel Boy]

8. fresh water: tomorrow's oil

Another diminishing resource to covet. And since Canada is fresh water's Saudi Arabia, I can't say the prospect thrills me.

So far, Canada refuses to permit the bulk export of our water. In ten years, when the US South East is really thirsty, will that be viable?