WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

well aware of this fact, of course, and their recommendation to invest
in companies involved in the water delivery business is a persuasive
one indeed. There are enormous profits waiting to be made. In its
March 2006 edition, the magazine Der Aktionär rates the water sector
as one of the ten most promising investment tips. And to quote once
again the economic journal Fortune, this time from the year 2005: “If
you are looking to invest in secure shares promising steady returns,
then why not try the ultimate alternative to the Internet: water.”
“Water – A Booming Market” was one of the headlines in the
Süddeutsche Zeitung of July 13, 2005. The article proclaimed: “Water
is the oil of the twenty-first century. Experts believe that clean drinking
water will become scarce faster than crude oil will, because the demand
for it is currently growing at twice the rate of the world population.
Investors will do well to place their money in shares and funds in this
growing market.”
Such insight comes almost automatically in today’s globalised
world. The promotion of free trade means that everyone now has to
compete with everyone else at international level, resulting in a kind of
downward spiral: an increasingly aggressive price war is being waged,
business locations worldwide vie with one another and the race is on
to find those locations which have the lowest environmental standards
and the least restrictive legal requirements. Companies manufacturing
consumer goods fight to the finish in a so-called “run to the bottom”.
The architects of neoliberal globalisation originally envisaged Third
World countries importing finished products on a large scale and
exporting their own natural resources at very low prices. What they
did not anticipate, however, was that the tables might one day be
turned, with transitional countries such as Thailand, South Korea,
Taiwan, China, Brazil or Mexico evolving into industrial powers and
overtaking the former “world export champions”. Meanwhile, it is
said that globalisation “devours its own offspring” or, to put it more
accurately: “globalisation consumes itself.” Against this background,
it is only too easy to understand why large for-profit companies are
increasingly targeting essential services and vital resources because
they can establish a kind of monopoly position and ward off rivals.
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