Drinking water–a human right o
3,600,000
2026
people die every year as a
result of contaminated water.In
water will be scarce in
two-thirds of the world.783,000,000
people have no access to safe
drinking water... ...40%
of them live south
of the SaharaOn July 28, 2010, access to clean water and sanitation
was recognized as a human right by the United Nations
General Assembly. Nonetheless, more than 3.5 millionpeople die annually because they have only polluted
water to drink. Often their wells, which provide cleaner
water, are pumped dry by the food industry.Also represented therein: economic
institutions such as the World Bank,
which is committed to privatization
of all public goods. The infl uence of
the World Water Council penetrates
into the highest political tiers of the
industrialized countries. Its goal: the
privatization of all of the fresh water
that exists on Earth.
Bottled water is just the tip of this
privatization of water. Mineral water
companies, such as Nestlé in South
Africa, are setting up giant bottling
plants on lakes, rivers, and aquifers,
pumping the ground dry, releasing
massive amounts of carbon dioxide
into the atmosphere, and generating
billions of tons of plastic waste. And
the “top dog” in this bottled water
industry is Nestlé.
“Nestlé is a predator—a water
hunter searching for the last pure
water in the world,” states Maude
Barlow. And Nestlé is just one player
in the $800 billion water industry:
The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo
Inc., and SABMiller plc (now owned
by Anheuser-Busch InBev) are trying
to bring every water source on Earth
under their control. In their quest, the
corporations secure water licences
for large areas—for several decades.Then they proceed to pump out the
clean groundwater, add minerals to
it, pour it into plastic bottles, and sell
it at up to 1,000 times the purchase
value. In Nigeria, for example, 1 liter
of Pure Life is more expensive than
1 liter of gasoline. And it is the very
countries in which water is already
a scarce resource that suffer from
this excessive water exploitation.Kellie Tranter
lawyer and human rights activist“On the driest inhabited
continent on the planet,
the only way for the price
of water to go is up.
Only those who
can afford to pay
for the water will
have the luxury of it.”
The consequences: In many places
the groundwater level is dropping,
people are losing their natural water
reserves. Those who cannot afford
the exorbitantly expensive bottled
water must drink from rivers in which
these megacorporations dispose of
their waste. Diarrheal diseases like
cholera as well as typhus and other
infectious diseases are part of daily...that’s18
out
of
worldwide!