Saturday, June 12, 2010

World Water Wars !


There's a battle going on for the source of Life: WATER. The corporate media isn't saying much, but across the globe citizens are struggling against various large transnational corporations like Coca Cola, Pepsi, Nestle, Vivendi and Bechtel which are seizing or trying to control our dwindling fresh water supplies.

National Geographic had a Special Issue on Water in April and stated these facts:
  • Nearly 70% of the world's fresh water is locked in ice.
  • Two-Thirds of our water is used to grow food.
  • Our aquifers are being drained faster than they can be recharged.
We have been bombarded by information on Global Warming and Energy Consumption but little has been said concerning the world's current and future crisis. As long as we can turn on a faucet and get a clean glass of water, why worry? However, in our state of ignorant bliss, corporations have been plotting to control the water supply on this planet for a while now and have moving their plans into place around the globe. Now the World Bank has required certain governments to privatize their precious water supply, make it a corporate commodity answerable only to stockholders, as a condition of getting a loan.

Late last year news reports highlighted a number of Indian communities were struggling against Coca Cola over issues of over-exploitation of their ground water supply. The people of Plachimada, in Kerala, that live in and around the Coca Cola plant have proof that validates their charges that the bottler's operations have depleted and contaminated the ground water. In fact, in April, the village elders decided NOT to renew the license issued to the Coca Cola factory on grounds of "protecting the public interest". One bottling plant in Kala Dera, in Jaipur, has been instrumental in causing a severe drop in groundwater levels by 4.3 meters (14 feet). In other Indian provinces new struggles against Coca Cola's groundwater greed have recently come to light.

There are three informative DVDs out now that will shock, anger and inspire you to do something. They are FLOW, TAPPED and BLUE GOLD. You will be introduced to the people who are being harmed by these corporate tyrannies that are claiming their water. You'll be taken to a Bolivian city's water war with Bechtel and see what's happening in South Africa and elsewhere in India, even to the state of Michigan and beyond. Big businesses are making a fortune as they pollute or divert water supplies, or bottle it for sale at prices the world's poor cannot afford.

The way I see it....the case against greed is the message at hand. The answer comes down to demand. If we, as stewards of the earth, stop buying their various bottled water products (like the phony vitamin water, etc.), the demand would dwindle and the resultant reduction in the industry's drain on the aquifers would help preserve this natural resource for further generations. Walk away from Coca Cola, Pepsi, Nestle and Vivendi bottled water and not only help our planet but insure your better health and well being.

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