WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

These concepts, however, should all be viewed with great caution.
We must not let them distract us from the fact that water may only be
polluted at the rate at which it can be purified again or regenerate itself
naturally. While it is imperative that we find technical solutions to the
problems of accessing and distributing water, it is even more important
that we all come to realise that drinking water is not a commodity in
unlimited supply. We should not allow it to be commercially exploited
by a handful of greedy protagonists.
13.10 Who Has the Power of Control over Water Supplies
Complete and autonomous control of the supply and distribution of
water – as well as the disposal of sewage – must remain in the hands
of the people who depend on it for their daily lives. This also applies
to decisions or contracts whose consequences will only take effect fully
in the distant future. Coming generations must be guaranteed the
unrestricted right of disposal of clean drinking water sources.
One thing can be said for certain about all water-related struggles
up to the present day and all privatisation plans worldwide: when
water was sold off, citizens’ rights and any form of co-determination
were sold off, too – sacrificed to the profit-making interests of big
corporations. In order to safeguard the provision of essential public
services for everyone on the planet, we will have to create a society
where democracy and transparency are alive and well and people are
allowed to determine their own living conditions at all levels. Only
then will we all be able to look forward to a future without wars for
water. Greenpeace activists once wrote on one of their banners:
“If our world’s water were a bank, we would
have rescued it by now!”
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