WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

organisations,48 all of which have efficient means at their disposal for
enforcing the decisions they make. At present, 186 nations belong to
the World Bank Group (WBG), which has national offices in more
than 100 countries and more than 8,000 employees. Within the World
Bank, which is a private-enterprise institution, voting rights of member
states are proportional to the individual member’s capital contribution,
similar to the IMF arrangements. The five managing directors are
designated by the five largest donor nations. Wealthy states are thus
able to push through their own national interests unhindered.
According to its own self-promotion, the World Bank is an
institution which “places its main emphasis on helping the poorest
people and nations”. In 2006, it declared on its website: “We dream of
a world free from poverty.” In reality, however, it acts with much less
magnanimity.
During the years, the World Bank – together with the IMF and WTO
– has developed into one of the most ruthless driving forces behind the
tidal wave of global liberalisation and privatisation. Instead of relieving
the problems of poorer countries, it has aggravated them time and
time again. It financed pipelines, for example, which were responsible
for extensive environmental damage over a period of decades, or tube
wells, which provided the population of poorer countries with water
but in the end led to the desertification of entire regions because of
the subsequent fall in ground water levels. The suffering endured
by millions of families who lost their homes as a result of large dambuilding
schemes stems from World Bank initiatives and financing.
The loans granted by the World Bank and its subsidiary organisations
are rigidly tied to their Private Sector Development Strategy, which they
use to force through the privatisation of many of those areas responsible
for the provision and management of essential public services, especially
water supplies. Poor nations which have become entrapped by their
debts have hardly any chance of regaining their freedom. Generally
speaking, the World Bank intentionally exploits the misery of poor
countries by granting them loans and then forcing them to conform to
market economy demands for the benefit of big corporations.
In order to complete the picture, it has to be said that the World
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