WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

the hammer and the community of Wandlitz, composed of nine
independent villages, was offered the chance to acquire it for €420,000.
In other words, residents were being asked to pay for a lake which
had always been theirs! As the community did not have this amount
of money, the lake was sold to the Teutonia real estate company in
Düsseldorf. Teutonia, in turn, transformed the lake into a joint-stock
company and offered the former users preferential shares for the use
of swimming and boat piers, something which would have bestowed
profits of €750,000 on the speculators. In addition to this, Teutonia
demanded an annual rent of €10,000 from the community for the use
of the bathing jetty at the communal lido, a demand which led to a
lawsuit. Similar disputes are taking place elsewhere with regard to
other lakes.
“How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth
of the land The idea is strange to us.
If we do not own the freshness of the air or
the sparkle of the water, how can you buy
them from us What Chief Seattle says, the
great white chief can rely upon with as much
certainty as our white brother can upon the
return of the sun or the seasons.”
Chief Seattle of the Diwamish tribe to the U.S. president, Franklin Pierce, in 1855
Meanwhile opposition is growing. Newspapers have been reporting
on the privatisation of lakes and the BVVG announced in August 2009
that, “for the time being”, no more lakes would be sold because the
company was far too busy at present with the sale of arable land.
Critics assume that this statement was just a gesture intended to calm
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