TAP (Truth about Privatization)

Most people don’t know that only a mere 2.5% of the world’s water is fresh water, and that only 0.024% of that is potable water which can be used for human consumption. That small, but highly valuable amount is diminishing. Today’s generation must realize that wars could be fought. Conflicts already exist, for example between Bangladesh and India. Some might even be waged against our Canadian neighbors, who have more freshwater resources than any other country.

Water in the developed world is unfortunately wasted, especially when it comes to irrigation. In developing countries, people have no accessibility. They rely on charity-provided straws to filter out any pollutants or disease-causing agents. But a lesser known evil is privatization because locals in developing countries (and even some small American towns) may have abundant water sources available to them, but not at their reach due to rising costs and worsening quality. Worst of all, we are all responsible. And companies love to make it seem like the problem does not even exist.

Water privatization is a growing negative symptom of globalization. The modern economy has given way to the age of commodification, in which products that we should not consider economic goods are sold and often lead to profits for the wealthiest people in the world: the CEOs of conglomerates Nestle, PepsiCo, Coca Cola, and French water companies Suez and Veolia.

While privatization can be a good thing, preventing the tragedy of the commons issue from arising, in which everyone exploits the resource because of a lack of regulation, corporate control is very dangerous. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund institute structural adjustment policies in their austerity measures, meaning they include conditions along with their loans to developing countries, countries which depend on the loans for further development in infrastructure and education. A popular offer in these policies includes privatizing water resources. The offer often looks attractive on paper, but once signed and running for a few months, the companies hike up the prices, sell the water at a rapid rate, and sometimes pollute it irresponsibly. Vandana Shiva, activist from India and author of multiple books on water wars claims, “denying poor people access to water by privatizing water distribution or polluting wells is also terrorism.”

While fighting large banks and multi-national corporations is very difficult, national solutions include improvements to public funding and exposing these companies who hide behind North American Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA) and WTO, and Free Trade Area of the Americans’ (FTAA) free trade rules. On an individual level, stop consuming bottled water because this allows us to support privatization and the profits these companies make. Also, look out for TAP (Truth about Privatization), a campaign to expose privatization and encourage drinking tap water, which has its roots in the 2013 Salzburg Global Seminar and will begin at Kendall Campus in the fall semester.

Peace and Love,

Halina Rachelson