Arrivederci, Water Profiteers

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



Arrivederci, Water Profiteers
Why 96 percent of Italian voters rejected their government’s push for water privatization.

by Daniel Moss
posted Jul 22, 2011


“Water—whether we treat it as a public good or as a commodity that can be bought and sold—will in large part determine whether our future is peaceful or perilous,” wrote the scholar Maude Barlow.

In Italy last month, an overwhelming number of people (96 percent of the 57 percent of the population that voted) cast their ballots for a peaceful future based on shared ownership of water.

The referendum overturned a law passed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s government, which would have encouraged private companies to buy up public water utilities and guaranteed them a profit on their investment, opening the door to rate hikes.

The referendum also stripped Berlusconi government ministers of special court privileges and reaffirmed public opposition to nuclear power. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/italians-stop-water-privatization

[blm]

1. This is a HUGE matter that gets too little attention.

He who controls the water controls everything.

[rurallib]

4. wish I could recommend a comment also.

[xchrom]

2. very good. nt

[TBF]

3. And not just in Italy - here "fracking" is something folks should be paying attention to.

Anything that has the potential to contaminate our water supplies is something we should be looking at -


Face-Off Over 'Fracking': Water Battle Brews On Hill
by Jeff Brady

May 27, 2009

Environmentalists and the natural gas industry are getting ready for a battle in Congress over something known as "hydraulic fracturing."

"Fracking," as the industry calls it, involves injecting a million gallons or more of water and chemicals deep underground to pry out gas that's locked away in tight spaces.

Environmentalists want the federal government to regulate the practice because, in some cases, fracking may be harming nearby water wells. The industry says regulation should be left up to the states.

Hydraulic fracturing allows drillers to dramatically increase production. The chemicals pumped underground with the water help drillers bore through the hard rock. The pressure used is tremendous — about 300 times a typical garden hose. That creates small cracks in the rock that allow gas to escape.

Steve Harris believes that pressure also ruined his well. He lives on 14 acres south of Dallas. Shortly after a driller fracked a nearby well, he and his neighbors noticed a change in water pressure.

"When you'd flush the toilet — in the back where the bowl is — water would shoot out the top of the bowl," says Harris.

When he took a shower, there was a foul odor, and the water left rashes on his grandson's skin. His horses stopped drinking from their trough, and there was an oily film on top of the water.

Similar stories are popping up around the country. In Ohio, a couple's house blew up when gas from their water well filled their basement. A woman in Colorado blames her health problems on the chemicals used for fracking.

For the most part, people nearby don't even know what chemicals are being injected into the ground — companies don't have to report that...


Much more here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104565793

[izquierdista]

9. I'd be less concerned about the chemicals

and more concerned about the physical result. That oily film, the foul odor, the irritant leaving the rashes, I'm skeptical they are the "chemicals pumped underground" and are more likely the hydrocarbons the frackers are after. What helps drillers bore through hard rock, those would be lubricants -- soaps or clays, not known to be particularly offensive. What IS nasty (in taste, odor, and feel) is the hydrocarbon that they are letting loose. Once the impermeable layer trapping the hydrocarbon is shattered, the oil and gas are free to diffuse until they encounter another barrier. If there isn't one, then they are going to saturate the nearby water well.

[Selatius]

5. That's democracy in action. Berlusconi is a proto-fascist as far as I'm concerned. nt

[catrose]

6. Much smarter than we are!

[catrose]

7. Much smarter than we are!

[snagglepuss]

8. Fantastic news. Thanks for posting. nt