They want to privatize OUR water!!

[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

[napoleon_in_rags]

1. Oh that'll be awesome.

I can't wait till the speculation begins there. Especially if they can't figure out that water, unlike oil, is renewable.

:sarcasm:

[mdmc]

2. Now they want to profit off our thirst?

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

[Dover]

4. This is the definition of EVIL....n/t

[Initech]

35. They already do:

[panader0]

3. Got my own well, thank goodness.

[Dover]

6. Well, until they get your legislature to pass a law that limits your use,

or something else. Dig out my thread on T.Boone Pickens (or google it) if you want to see
how these guys operate. And I'm sure there are many more similar stories around the world.

[dysfunctional press]

16. if they ever managed to- i'd add a catch basin to every building we have.

nt

[CrispyQ]

42. In Bolivia, even rainwater was privatized.

And in Colorado, collecting rain water is illegal. If we ever had any fucking rain, that is.

http://www.denverwater.org/cons_xeriscape/conservation/FAQ_WestWaterLaws.html

snip...

Q. Why doesn't Denver Water have rebates for rain barrels so we could catch our rain and put it on our plants?

A. Colorado Water Law requires that precipitation fall to the ground, run off and into the river of the watershed where it fell. Because rights to water are legally allocated in this state, an individual may not capture and use water to which he/she does not have a right.

Q. Why can't Denver Water customers reuse their own gray water for outdoor use?

A. Colorado water law allows each customer just one use of the water before it goes down the drain, through a wastewater treatment plant and back into the river for others to use. By law, Denver Water customers are not permitted to take their bath or laundry water (commonly referred to as gray water) and dump it on their outdoor plants or garden. After this water is used once by Denver Water customers, it must return to the South Platte River where it will be used seven or eight more times before it gets to the state line (Nebraska). State water laws are enforced by the State Engineer's office (PDF). Denver Water does not endorse any gray water systems.

===
Enforcement is another topic altogether.

[dysfunctional press]

13. same here. i used to miss chicago tap-water, until we installed a reverse-osmosis system...

for drinking water.

but the well-water is fantastic for your hair.

[A HERETIC I AM]

25. So, out of curiosity, did you drill the well yourself by hand?

Do you own a 3 -axis Bridgeport Milling Machine that allowed you to make the valves and pump you use? Did you make the pipes that go down into the water table as well as the piping that brings the water to your taps?
Maybe you just use an old fashioned well pump like this one;

If so, did you construct it yourself? What about the buckets or pails you would need to haul the water or the barrels to store it? Are you also a qualified Cooper?

I'm happy for you that you have a well. I've lived in homes that had wells too. But none of the equipment needed to actually sink the well or bring the water to the faucet was manufactured in our house.

I don't mean to single you out, but the reactionary bullshit on this thread is absurd.

[dysfunctional press]

44. what difference does all that make anyway..?

we recently replaced our 35-year old well pump, the 100 ft. of pipe down to it, and even the well tank in the house.
and we replaced the water softener last year and installed a reverse-osmosis system for drinking water.
no, we didn't make any of it- so what? we paid for it...and except for softener salt and an occasional filter, we shouldn't have any more water-related expenses for quite awhile.

btw- my father-in-law does have a couple of bridgeport milling machines, and probably could replicate the pump parts. and he'd probably enjoy doing so.

[A HERETIC I AM]

45. Simply this....

Is it wrong to invest in the companies than made the pipe, the tank, the water softener and the purifier that you purchased?

Because that is all the story in the OP is about.

Headlines that scream "They want to privatize OUR water!!" referencing a story about a newly issued investment security are sensationalist and ridiculous.

Do you, the OP and everyone else joining in this chorus expect the companies that make pipe, tanks, water softeners, purifiers, filters, pumps, valves and install major, complex public systems to operate as charities or non-profits?

THAT'S what difference it makes.

Until you have completely dug the well by hand, walled it in with bricks you made yourself and installed a cover and bucket crank you made yourself, you are still purchasing products likely made by publicly traded companies involved in water infrastructure.

Why is it so wrong to invest in those companies?

[dysfunctional press]

48. actually, no...that's not what it's about- it's not just the infrastructure- it's the water itself..

and in some/many communities the water systems were paid for with public monies in the first place- the companies that get the rights haven't made the investment in infrastructure either.
amd just because i have a well- i may not be protected if a private company aquires the rights to the aquifer and requires that we put meters on our own wells- even though i paid for ALL of the equipment to draw and filter my own water.

[IntravenousDemilo]

5. The first step is to refuse to buy bottled water. Remove a big chunk of the profit. n/m

[Dover]

7. YES!

A great place to start.

[dysfunctional press]

14. never have, never will.

nt

[Catherine Vincent]

8. I guess we knew that was coming. nt

[texastoast]

9. Oh yeah

Wait until we don't have enough water to go around. That thin veneer we call civility? Pffftt--outta here.

But the question is, how do you get folks to really think about and prepare for that?

[bdamomma]

10. water is going to be the next oil.

[Dover]

12. You state that with resignation ...like that's a given, and we're powerless to change it.

How long is this country going to roll over?

[Gabi Hayes]

11. read about what they did in Bolivia, including trying to privatize RAINWATER!

http://www.50years.org/cms/ejn/story/85

World Bank’s ICSID to Hear Case on Bolivia Water Privatization

Bechtel Corp Suing for $25 million in Lost Profits After People Revolt
by Malcolm Seymour

More and more people are learning, through experience or through burgeoning campaigns, about the inhumanity of water privatization campaigns in the Global South. The story, re-enacted across the world, never loses its sting: the IMF and World Bank pressure governments to sell off publicly-run water systems; for-profit corporations from the North step in; within weeks, water bills skyrocket to unaffordable levels.

A new phenomenon has started pushing across the horizon, bringing hope to those who feared that water commodification had become the bleak, inevitable future of the developing world. Civic demonstrations in countries like Bolivia, Argentina, South Africa and Ecuador have succeeded in chasing corporations away from public water.

But these protests have come at significant costs. In Bolivia, the government responded to protests against an agreement which went so far as to privatize rainwater in the province of Cochabamba with brute force and a martial lockdown. In the ensuing bedlam, a 17-year-old boy was killed when police catapulted a tear gas canister into his head. Bechtel, the company which had secured the contract for the privatization, finally chose to withdraw in the face of such strong opposition.

To add insult to injury, Bechtel, which had hiked water rates an average of 50% virtually overnight, sued the Bolivian government for $25 million -- a figure far greater than what they invested. Following a principle becoming more common in the age of “free-trade” treaties, they sued for the projected profits they would now not realize.

[Dover]

18. Well as long as there's a profit to be made they'll keep after it.

We don't have to look to Bolivia for the problem, although we might look to their citizens for the answers.

Right now T. Boone Pickens is in possession of THE largest privately owned water resource in the U.S., primarily in north Texas. He's been busy in the legislature getting key laws enacted as Texas hammers out its new water laws, for building a pipeline to Dallas. Not to mention other wealthy citizens and many major corporations quietly going around buying up water reserves and large parcels here and around the world.

If this is permitted to continue I HOPE there's a rebellion. But folks in the U.S. just can't
seem to work together to exact change, and instead keep relying on corrupt politicians working within a corrupt system to change their world. Good luck with that.

[ColbertWatcher]

15. For the GOP, everything is a commodity. n/t

[Dover]

20. Don't kid yourself. It's NOT just the GOP...n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

31. I'm sorry, it is just the GOP. n/t

[dysfunctional press]

17. water and power should BOTH be publicly-owned utilities.

ideally- every house should be self-powered, or at most- part of a small community "grid", with power generated by wind, solar, tide, hydro-electric- whatever combinations make the most sense for the region, and are as 'clean' generating as possible.

[aasleka]

19. Wells won't work

Heavier infrequent rains have already begun, the AWWA and other groups have already started roundtables looking at stormwater runoff water models as surface water collection. The water table will drop and what was wet 75' down won't be.

Some have been ahead of the curve like the German company that bought the utility mear Winchester Ky and there will be more small communities that will consider it as well as large cities that try to offset the costs of the changes coming. Do you think that everyone dropped chlorine because they JUST found out it caused cancer?
They dropped it because the EPA made them and what's up with all the medication in the water supply? Remember what your drinking dinsaurs urinated out, and your neighbor upstream. We only test what we're told to test for, regulations will get stricter and more expensive making it seem like a good decision to pass the costs on to private investors, except of course we'll be selling our soul.

[Dover]

24. Even where they do work, they'll likely get heavily regulated by

states (and probably to the benefit of someone else rather than purely of necessity).

These privatizer are licking their chops at the potential here and will have a hand
in changing laws to further their gains, everyone else be damned.

[Deja Q]

21. Which brand will Jesus buy?

:beer:

[BadgerKid]

22. Rolling water shortages in 3...2...1... n/t

[Liberal In Texas]

23. Yep, and as soon as the speculators get hold of it...$4/gal. as well. n/t

[Dover]

26. Fight to keep your area's water PUBLIC. Don't allow it to fall into private hands

NO MATTER WHAT! If, for instance, Dallas buys their water from T.Boone Pickens, then they have sealed their fate.

[salguine]

27. If this is allowed to stand, soon the global supply of breathing air will be privatized. I'll

say it again..."Guillotine...guillotine"...come on, say it with me..."guillotine...guillotine..."

[BreweryYardRat]

28. I'm perfectly comfortable with the idea of burning water speculators alive.

Anyone so greedy and callous as to try and enrich themselves by setting monopolies on something necessary for everyone to live...doesn't deserve to share the world with the rest of us.

Might as well do it in a mildly ironic manner, too.

[Dover]

29. Somehow waterboarding seems more appropriate...

or perhaps leave them out in the desert with just a dime in their pocket and
when they're good and thirsty ask if they'd like a glass of water. And when they
accept the offer, let them know that the price of water just went up to a dollar. }(

:beer:

[lonestarnot]

30. Are there water riots yet?

[begin_within]

32. Why not just privatize air and all substances, gases, molecules, atoms, particles, light, sound

[nightrain]

36. That's what I was thinking--next it'll be privatizing air.

[Fox Mulder]

33. So when are they going to start charging us for breathing air?

:grr:

[LiberalPersona]

38. When the air is so polluted everywhere

that the only clean air will be stored in containers.

[Triana]

34. This has been coming for years - water will be the next oil...

..unless we STOP it. And all other privatization of what OUGHT to be public services. I heard today on NPR that even firefighters are now (some of them) contracted out from privately owned corprats.

[blogslut]

37. Yep

And guess who is trying to do it in the good old U.S.A.?Why, none other than everybody's new favorite energy hero, T. Boone Pickens:

...Pickens has long pumped water from the Ogallala Aquifer through his company Mesa Water, but has recently formed an itsy-bitsy eight acre water district (populated not coincidentally by people firmly in Pickens’ pocket) which will finance the construction of a $2.2 billion water pipeline running into the the Dallas-Ft Worth metro area from the Panhandle. Electric transmission will run above this.

New Texas legislation makes it possible
Up until last year this wouldn’t have been possible under Texas law, but during the last session of the state legislature a new law was passed which allows renewable and clean-coal energy projects to obtain public rights of way by piggybacking on a fresh water district’s ability to claim land for water pipelines—by eminent domain if necessary. A water transmission pipeline can be built underground and the transmission lines can run above it.

In doing this Pickens can reduce the time required for permitting and obtaining rights of way, reducing his exposure to regulatory risk, and potential save a good deal of money in the process. And in the end hopefully create a healthy profit for himself.

Eminent domain raises concerns along the route
It seems quite efficient really, but the thought of land being seized through eminent domain raises people’s hackles like little else. Last month residents along the route received letters explaining that their lands may be disturbed...

link: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/06/water-not-wind-behind-tboone-transmission.php

He will drink your milkshake. He's drinking ours.

[The Backlash Cometh]

39. I fully expected Cheney's elk to go after our water supply.

[muriel_volestrangler]

40. Cheney's 'elk'?

These guys? http://www.elks.org/

Or these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk

[The Backlash Cometh]

41. I'm absolutely sure, that's what I meant!

LOL!

[Evoman]

43. Quite simply, anybody attempting to do this should be immediately executed.

Taking control of water is like taking control of air. You try to do it, you die.

[Nikki Stone1]

46. This has been coming for a long time and it has to be fought.

Thank you for posting this.

[Union Thug]

47. And next year, they will privatize the air.

I think that water privatization will be the impetus that drives the next civil war in America.