[Marxism] Privatizing water in India

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Counterpunch, April 12, 2006

Water as Commodity and Weapon

The Corporate Hijack of India's Water

By P. SAINATH

2001: The old man shuffled his feet, acutely embarrassed. No matter which
part of India you're in, the first thing you do is offer your guests a
glass of water. And this was one part of Nallamada in Andhra Pradesh
blessed with that element. Things had changed, though. "Please don't drink
it," he said, finally. "See how it is?" he asked, showing us a tumbler.
Tiny blobs of thingummy floated atop a liquid more brown than transparent.
But then he brightened up. "Will you have Coca-Cola instead? That, this
village has." And so it did. As in the Aamir Khan ad. The smaller bottle
for Rs. 5.

It's also there in countless other villages where a glass of clean water is
now hard to find. And Coca Cola's impact on both drinking and irrigation
water sparks revolts across the country. From Plachimada in Kerala to
Kaladera in Rajasthan. From Gangaikondan in Tamil Nadu to Mehdiganj in
Uttar Pradesh. From Thane in Maharashtra to Khammam in Andhra Pradesh.

2002: M.P. Veerendrakumar, chairman of the Mathrubhumi group of
publications, is startled to discover that the Malapuzha river and dam in
his native Kerala are "for lease or sale to private parties. "I did not
know you could sell and buy dams and rivers." He learns this from a tender
he sees in an American daily while on a trip overseas. "This had not
appeared in any of our local newspapers."

It had already begun in Andhra Pradesh There, two years earlier, farmers
chased away the World Bank's James Wolfensohn. He had come to unveil the
confederation of "Water Users Associations" in the state. "Water Users."
Oh, what a lovely word! It denotes that special group of folks who use
water. The rest of us are non-users, a type of dryland bacteria.

full: http://www.counterpunch.org/

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