Wednesday, June 5, 2013

High And Dry

How long till Nestle owns this?
Is there a human right to water?  It's not like you can live without it, when I saw this; Drop in U.S. underground water levels has accelerated -USGS | Reuters
It kind of made me wonder about the privatization of water. If you're lucky enough to have a well, your water's free, until the aquifer dries up, otherwise you are charged by your water company and the rates keep going up. Local water companies have complete control over what should be a public resource.
You've got to love good old free market capitalism, since water corporations are accountable only to stock holders, not to the public, well, you can imagine what the bottom line is going to be.

"Nestle Waters with its numerous brands, in order to provide commodity for the bottled water industry. This industry, which often bottles common ground water and sells it as spring water, competes with local communities for access to their water supplies, and is accused of reselling the water at drastically higher prices compared to what citizens pay for tap water."*
It looks like Agribusiness is depleting aquifers, is the problem getting worse since farming has been corporatized? I think we all know there's a finite amount of water available. But this problem will have to become a crises before anything is done about it. Then I wonder who it will be available to and how costly will it be?  I see people watering their lawns on a rainy day. Water, water everywhere... until there's not a drop to drink. 
I doubt seriously any government entities are doing anything to protect our water supply, I'm not sure if the EPA is even protecting the water quality. Looks like Prozac is in our drinking water and it might be linked to autism. Anitbiotics are in our drinking water. Unfortunately for me, not enough anti-anxiety medication is in my drinking water.  I guess it's great that the EPA is detecting all this "medicine" water, but then what? Seems like a lot of people are still drinking it in the Kool-Aid. 
I don't think it' a matter of if, it's a matter of when all water is privatized. If there's a way corporations can squeeze the citizenry dry to pay for water, it's going to happen. 


                                                    How about a little Radiohead?

 
                                              

 * Wikipedia
 

3 comments:

  1. The movie Chinatown, which dealt with a rich man played by John Huston trying to control the water supply, took place in the 1930s. But it looks like it could really come to that by the 2030s.

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  2. If you have to pay more and more for less and less water, you will work harder and harder for it and take more and more guff from your employer, for fear of going thirsty if you protest. Thus productivity will be raised, along with the profits of those in charge.

    It's a perfectly good plan that only a crazed, left-wing, commie-socialist-nazi subversive would oppose. If you don't like it, get off your lazy butt, get a high paying job like the rest of us at the country club and the yacht basin, and buy your own water.

    Very crankily yours,
    The New York Crank

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  3. They pollute the groundwater, and sell the drinking water. In 2000, in Bolivia, Bechtel even tried to make rainwater collection illegal.

    ReplyDelete