iD Ideas Discoveries March 2017

life—just like death: Worldwide, this
water policy kills seven people per
minute. That’s 3.6 million people per
year. More children die as a result
of contaminated drinking water than
from malaria, HIV, traffi c accidents,
and all wars combined.
The emerging prevalence of the
privatization of water was evident as
early as the year 2000. At that time
the Bolivian President Hugo Banzer
was forced to privatize the country’s
supply of water by the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The consequences for the people:
The water prices shot up by 300%,
and roughly a quarter of residents’
income was spent on the water bill.
For the 600,000 denizens of the city
of Cochabamba, it was forbidden to
build wells. In addition, they weren’t
even permitted to collect rainwater.
The hand controlling the water taps
belonged to a group of multinational
corporations that was based in the
U.S. For four months, the conditions
in the city were reminiscent of a civil
war: People engaged in street fi ghts
with the police and demonstrated in
droves against the injustice. In April
2000 the violence escalated, there
were deaths and injuries—and the
government imposed martial law on
the city. Eventually the government

gave in to the pressure exerted by

the suffering populace, and at long

last the privatization was rescinded.

So in this instance the corporations

had lost the “water war”—however,

they have already won it in plenty of

other countries.

One example is Mexico: While the

drilling of new wells in the vicinity of

the capital city is forbidden due to a

water shortage, Nestlé is allowed to

extract the groundwater there and

sell it in bottles. The consequences

of this water policy are particularly

devastating in the poorer countries

because hardly any alternatives to

the expensive bottled water exist.

But even in Canada and the USA,

the water companies are securing

licences for sources. For instance,

when almost all the wells in Atlanta

dried out during the 2007 drought,

Coca-Cola pumped more water out

of the deeper wells—and sold the

residents their own groundwater for

many times the price of tap water.

PURE GOLD

Here in Nigeria, a 0.5-liter bottle of “Pure Life”

water is more expensive than a liter of gasoline.

Nestlé pays hardly anything for the extraction.

“There are people

who will buy water

when they need it,

and people who have

water and want to

sell it. That’s the

blood, guts, and

feathers of the

thing.”

Water speculator and billionaire

T. Boone Pickens