Privatizing Water - UK's DDQ launches 6-year note for water investment

[Dover]

Hey I know! Let's run up the price of water!!! A new commodity for thirsty markets and business.

THIS HAS TO STOP!!!!! And WE are the ones that will have to do it.



UK's DDQ launches 6-year note for water investment

LONDON, July 28 (Reuters) - U.K-based fund manager DDQ said on Monday it has launched a 100 percent capital protected medium term note that will give investors exposure to water firms.

The note which will invest in the S&P Global Water Index .SPGTAQUA, will mature in 2014, DDQ said in a release.

"The fundamentals for water suggest rising demand and shortage of supply worldwide-creating substantial opportunities for profitable investment," said Mark Mathias, chief executive at DDQ.

"Established major water companies can benefit from the growth in privatisation of water services around the world."

..cont'd

http://www.reuters.com/article/etfNews/idUSL866925420080728

[Selatius]

1. Water should be considered a public good, not a private commodity.

By making it a private commodity, one renders access to water on the condition of profitability. If you cannot pay, you are lost. A privatized water utility has the added burden of delivering profits to shareholders, so naturally they will tack on a profit mark-up on the service they deliver. This is a scheme the poor see no benefit at all with.

In the past, when the aristocracy would close a piece of land that was once used by peasants for livelihood simply because the elite wanted to use that piece for their own purposes, they faced peasant rebellions and sometimes were overthrown.

[Dover]

2. Well MAYBE when people are thirsty enough they'll grab a pitchfork...

maybe.

[northernlights]

3. water will be the next oil

and this is one our lives depend on. A very, very scary situation, imho. When the water companies drain the aquifers, it's the citizen's wells that run dry and we're forced to buy from them.

Local Maine communities are fighting off the mega-conglomerate that owns Poland Springs, one by one. They go from town to town, trying to expand their operations. So far, they've lost each battle. I sure as hell pray they don't come to my village. The morons here would trade the water out from under all of us for a couple minimum wage jobs for their families.

Water needs to be treated as a public resource and NOT privatized. Just go to Colorado and pay $6 for a tiny bottle of water if you want to see what happens when you let one group of people steal the water.

[flashl]

4. Don't go independent and save rainwater or else

Who Does Rainwater Belong To?

Published on July 22nd, 2008
Posted in Planetsave

One of the greatest steps forward that local communities have taken of late is the push to collect rainwater to offset your water use. It is often an easy way to help out the environment and, in the long run, simply save water. There don’t really seem to be any catches to it either. Rain falls from the sky, hits your roof and runs in to your drums or barrels or tanks.

If only it were that simple.

Notch up another one for the members of the Idiots Anonymous who have apparently been camping out in Bellingham, Washington. Apparently, rainwater doesn’t actually belong to individuals, but to the state as a whole. Therefore, all the wonderful efforts of communities to collect water are actually illegal.

[northernlights]

5. if that's true

it must be on a state by state basis.

There are apparently a large number of people in western Maine who depend on cisterns for their water. Been that way for generations...maybe it's "grandfathered in"