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By the Center of Global Justice Water: commodity or human right? Water is one of the most precious resources of life. But is it part of a shared “commons”—a human right for all people? Or is it a commodity to be bought, sold and traded in a global marketplace? These are among the questions the Snowbird Symposium examines this week in a Wednesday talk on the San Miguel watershed and a Thursday film on worldwide controversies over water privatization San Miguel is in a very arid area of Mexico, with a water table that’s being rapidly depleted. What does this mean for the future? What will happen to irrigated agriculture as the groundwater runs out? And how has limited water availability already impacted migration? Traditionally an agricultural region, the state of Guanajuato has long had large numbers of its citizens go to El Norte to work. In fact, it sends more migrants abroad than any other state in Mexico. In his Wednesday address to the Snowbird Symposium, Atahualpa Caldera analyzes water availability and its impact on agriculture and migration. Caldera is a Master’s candidate in Watershed Management in Querétaro and has been a volunteer with Salva Laja. Water is becoming “blue gold”—the oil of the 21st century. Global corporations are rushing to gain control of this dwindling natural resource, producing intense conflict in the US and worldwide, where people are dying in battles over control of water. The 2004 documentary film Thirst opens with politicians, international bankers and corporate executives deciding who will control global fresh water supplies. Their consensus—for large dams and privatized, corporate water systems—is challenged by experts and activists who assert that water is a human right, not a commodity to be traded on the open market and controlled by megacorporations. The people of Cochabamba, Bolivia, fought successfully to reverse the privatization of their water after the government had sold it to the Bechtel Corporation. The struggle even toppled the national government in 2003 and helped set the stage for the election last month of Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales. The central story in Thirst takes place in Stockton, California, where the mayor proposed giving control of the water system to water corporations. Worried about price hikes, water quality and layoffs of public employees—who tend to be women or people of color—Stockton residents created a grassroots coalition to demand a say in the decision. Meanwhile, across the United States, multinational water companies continue to campaign for new contracts, but they have been put on the defensive by the collapse of contracts in Atlanta and Puerto Rico, as well as by popular challenges in many other cities. In Rajasthan, India, a charismatic local “Gandhi” is leading a people’s movement for water conservation that has revived rural life. But it’s an achievement that could be swept away by government plans—under pressure from the World Bank—to build large hydroelectric dams and privatize communal water sources, selling them to Coca-Cola and Pepsi. In Uruguay, voters headed off any privatization efforts by voting last fall to amend their constitution, making water a human right. In this larger context, how do we see the future of water in Mexico—where potable water is rare and commercial agriculture for export consumes over 80% of available water? The Snowbird Symposium is sponsored by the Center for Global Justice. For more information, call 150-0025. |