http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0701-06.htm
Published on Monday,
July 1, 2002 by CommonDreams.org
The Alchemy of Water
by Krystal Kyer
Medieval scientists
sought to turn base metals into gold,
creating wealth for themselves and their rulers. Likewise,
modern science, harnessed by capitalists, seeks to turn
fresh water into gold. While the former failed in their
explicit goals, they set out a path leading to the field of
chemistry. The latter group, led by transnational corporations
in the water industry, doubly succeeded.
First,
the fundamental ingredient of the modern day alchemists
is freshwater, H2O, not base metals. Fresh water is more valuable
to life on earth than any amount of gold. Water is the elixir
of life, in which our vary body's composition and survival
depend on. It is necessary for our food to grow, our rivers
to flow, and to support a plethora of diverse ecosystems and
species on Earth. For all their acclaimed worth, gold and diamonds
cannot compete with water. Compounding the problem, less than
1% of
all water is accessible for consumption.
Second,
transnational corporations (TNCs) have found a method of
converting water to gold. The research and development department,
probably headed by some free market "think tank", searched
for
ways to improve water, and the solution was simple: make it a
product,
own it, sell it. The catalyst in this reaction is privatization.
TNCs, with the backing of US hegemony and its neoliberal
institutions -- the World Bank and International Monetary Fund
--
have once again revolutionized the means of creating wealth,
capital, gold. Privatization removes publicly owned water supplies
from the public and into the hands of private companies, with
private interests -- turning water to gold. Its needless to say,
but I'll say it anyway, gold can't sustain life.
The private water industry
seizes water out of the very mouths
of the thirsty and deposits it in the coffers of TNCs, where
they work their magic metamorphosing water into gold.
Privatization reverses the seemingly irreversible flow of
water -- from life-giving to life-taking. Water, long-viewed
as a common property resource available to all, and basic human
right, is transformed into a commodity. It is bought and sold.
Paid for in meaningless pieces of paper stamped with God and $.
The message
is simple: if you want to live, pay up. Conversely,
if you can't pay, you don't have a right to life. That
has been
the lesson Western capitalism is attempting to teach the rest
of the world. From Bolivia to Argentina to Ghana to the
Philippines, water privatization combined with a prohibition
on public subsidies for the poor, has elevated the (lack of)
rules of the market above human rights.
How do TNCs
convert water to gold? They charge more. When
water is privatized, prices go up. When prices go up, access to
water
goes down. In the industrialized country of Great Britain,
rate hikes after privatization caused poorer residents to lose
access to water in their homes, because they couldn't afford
to pay for it. The consequences in countries where two-thirds
of the population lives in poverty, such as Cochabamba,
Bolivia, are grave. There, people rejected a World Bank
sanctioned privatization scheme, even after it was implemented.
So too in Tucuman, Argentina. And the struggle continues in Ghana,
as the government plans to privatize water there. Modern alchemists
have succeeded in creating a reaction that increases the wealth
of the few, at the cost of the many. Privatization experiments
span all continents. The G8 summit deep in the Canadian forest
last week produced plans to expand experimentation across Africa,
as a component of Western "aid" packages to reduce suffering
of
hundreds of millions on the African continent.
What
will the results be? If history is any indicator of the
future, the privatization of water and subsequent creation of
gold for TNCs has many byproducts, none of which are beneficial
to the populace. Take Cochabamba, Bolivia as an example. There,
the municipal water supply was taken from the city and control
was centralized at the state level. Then the public water
utility was sold to a consortium of US and Italian-based
TNCs, without public comment, participation, or approval, and
at the order of the World Bank. Rate hikes soared, and many
residents were unable to pay. On the bright side, peaceful
demonstrations ensued, grassroots coalitions formed, and
negotiations began. Democracy flourished in reaction to an
undemocratic and unjust co-optation of public resources.
Then violence erupted from the arms of the state, in a
desperate attempt to quash protest and maintain the status
quo -- a neoliberal policy of privatization benefiting the
world's elite at the cost of the majority poor.
At the same time, the
new private water alchemist,
Aguas del Tunari, worked steadily to turn its water into
gold. Yet that gold is liken to a magician's illusion rather
than a chemist's reaction. Wealth isn't immaculately conceived
by capitalism either, although capitalists and developers like
to think they are doing God's work. Instead, the gold comes from
the people. It is transferred from water consumers to transnational
capitalists. From those in need to those consumed by greed.
History also shows
us that people can successfully oppose
privatization of their water. In Cochabamba and Tucuman,
water contracts were cancelled due to popular resistance.
The TNCs were ousted, but their search for gold continues.
In both cases, the TNCs involved are suing the citizens of
both countries, through the World Bank's arbitration branch,
for millions of dollars in compensation for the loss of
"potential profits." When providing services doesn't
cut it,
they go straight for the throat. As these countries are beholden
to international financial institutions, the citizens are held
captive under an enormous, unsustainable debt that pits the
interest of capital against the interests of life.
Which will
prevail? Popular victories are adding up,
as people mobilize to resist capitalism, neoliberalism, and
its privatization tool. Yet Western economic and cultural
domination looms large. It has just expanded the experimentation
to Africa, a continent where reparation is needed more than
loans. The stated intentions of development "aid" to
help the
three-quarters world appears, based on concrete evidence and
past experiences, to be the antithesis of the actual results.
If history repeats itself in Africa, millions will be left
worse off, with even less access to clean water and sanitation.
Illness, disease, and death are sure to follow. Perhaps this
is the G8's solution to the world's perceived "population
problem" -- privatize their resources, take their money,
and
watch them die. After all, the goal of capitalism isn't to
sustain life, but to produce wealth, even at the cost of life.
Krystal Kyer recently
received her Master's of Environmental
Studies degree from The Evergreen State College, and
is currently unemployed. Email: klynn@nocharge.zzn.com
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