Privatization of Water, a Challenge to
the Poor: A Study of Select Works by Environmental
Activists
Nirmala
Varghese,
Associate
Professor,
Christian
College,
Chengannur,
Kerala, India.
Abstract: Privatization of
water is the transfer of ownership of a natural resource like water from a
public sector to a private sector with the motive of making profits by selling
water to the common man. Economic Globalisation intensifies natural resource
extraction and aggravates environmental exploitation. This poses a threat to
the poor as well as to the environment. Extracting large quantities of water
leads to water scarcity. The rich could afford to buy water for higher prices,
whereas the poor are denied access to clean drinking water. Environmental
Activists like Vandana Shiva and Maude Barlow have voiced the cause of the poor
who are denied water due to privatization of water. Privatization of water is
at conflict with the idea of water as a human right. Neoliberal policies favour
the market system. It thwarts the concept of Environmental Justice. The present
paper attempts to point out the challenges posed by privatization of water to
the poor as portrayed in select works of Vandana Shiva and Maude Barlow. Their
activism will impart environmental justice to the marginalized populations.
Both Activists declare privatization of water a failure.
Keywords: Neoliberalism, Privatization of water,
Environmental Justice, Environment Activists, Hydro humanities
Introduction
Privatization of
water is the transfer of ownership of a natural resource like water from the
control of a government or the public sector to a private sector or a corporate
power structure with a motive of making profits by selling water to the common
man. With the advent of economic globalization, natural resources came to be
exploited to serve the needs of the industry or the corporate world. Economic
Globalization intensifies natural resource extraction and aggravates
environmental exploitation. This has led to a widening gap between the poor and
the rich. The rich could afford to buy water for higher prices but the poor are
denied clean drinking water as they have no money to pay high prices for water.
Objective
The paper
attempts to point out the many challenges posed by privatization of water to
the poor. Privatization of water is both a challenge to the poor as well as to
the environment. Extracting large quantities of water leads to water scarcity,
slows down the natural flow of rivers and streams, leading to pollution and
contamination of water bodies. This affects the poor who have no money to buy
clean drinking water. They are denied access to fresh water bodies as many
water resources are owned by corporates who sell water for high prices. This is
a true case of human rights violation.
The late
twentieth century saw a growing awareness among activists about the
environmental and social consequences of converting water into a saleable
commodity. Commodification of water leads to water depletion and water pollution.
Fresh water resources became scarce, making people leave their homes and
livelihoods. Displacement and lack of resources reduced them to poverty. The
issue of privatization of water was addressed by environmental activists in
their activists’ writings. They have played a major role in resisting water
privatization. They have organized grass root level movements to stop
appropriation of water resources. They have collaborated with activists at the
global level to put an end to water privatization. Environment Activists like
Vandana Shiva and Maude Barlow have recorded many instances of wide spread
opposition against water privatization , have tried to bring out factual
evidences of water privatization in different parts of the world .In all these instances
we find that the poor are the most affected . They are denied access to clean
drinking water. They have lost their livelihoods when their wetlands were taken
away from them to build dams and other infrastructures. Water privatization
also poses serious threats to the environment –water depletion and water
pollution have degraded the environment. Both these activists have pointed out
that Environmental Justice is the need of the hour.
Environment
Humanities includes under its blanket term fields like Hydro Humanities and
Blue Humanities which talks about man’s relationship with water bodies. The
field of Hydro Humanities highlights the impact of human activity on the water
world. It explores many incidents of atrocities on water and how it impacted the
poor. Water is seen as a commodity with an economic value and not as a common
good. Hence the field of Hydro Humanities is integral to understanding the
water crisis prevalent in the world in the present as well as in future. Environment
Justice Ecocriticism deals with texts that speak about social and environmental
issues that ought to be addressed in order to impart environmental justice to
those who are excluded from becoming partakers of a natural resource like
water. Commodification of water is market driven, helps the corporate to make
profits out of selling water, but water is an essential resource, a human right
and hence cannot be denied to mankind. As a result of water privatization,
conflicts break out between governments and marginalized populations leading to
protests against water privatization. Protests and campaigns organized by
activists have mobilized communities to bring about social changes .These
protest marches and grassroots level campaigns finds vent in works of
environmental activists which communicate about environmental challenges posed
by neoliberal policies of the corporate and the need to embrace water
democracy.
Activists
writings comprises of works by activists who resist social issues that cause
inequalities in society. There have been many instances of writers, activists
and the common man protesting against power structures that unleash
exploitation in society. Privatization of water is a case in point. To
appropriate a natural resource like water for making profits and denying the common
man access to water bodies is a human right violation. Privatization of water
has led to protests from activists and the common man in different parts of the
world. The protest of the common man in Cochabamba, in Bolivia is a true story
of how the public reacted to water privatization. Privatization of water has
proved to be a failure. Activists have recorded many instances of campaigns,
demonstrations, sit ins and other modes of resistance in their works to make
the common man aware of the exploitation and the overuse of a natural resource
like water. Industries and corporate companies need extensive use of water for
large scale production. The excessive extraction of water has depleted
underground water resources, leading to desertification, forcing people to flee
to wetter lands in search of water. Activists have been trying to alert the
public of this social evil, to mobilize communities into actions that resist
water privatization. Through their works
they have informed the world of the hidden agendas of the corporate
world that privatize water resources .The combined efforts of activists and the
common man at the grassroots level have
resisted privatization of water and have
led to alternatives that advocate
social changes and environmental reforms. Activists address human right
issues or environmental concerns. In the twenty first century, we see the crisscrossing
of human rights and environmental concerns in environmental humanities. Privatization
of water is at the same time an environmental issue and a human right
violation.
According
to Ramachandra Guha and Juan Martinez-Alier in
“Introduction” to Varieties of Environmentalism: Essays North and South:
The environmentalism of the poor, we argue, originate in social conflicts over
access to and control over natural resources, conflicts between peasants and
industry, conflicts between rural and urban populations over water and energy.
Many social conflicts often have an ecological content with the poor trying to
retain under their control the natural resources threatened by state takeover or by the
advance of the generalized market system. This ecological content is then made
visible by writers and intellectuals associated with such movements.(xxi)
Environmental
Activists like Vandana Shiva and Maude Barlow have voiced the cause of the poor
who are denied water, a human right. In her works, Globalisations New Wars: Seed,
Water and Life Forms, Making Peace with the Earth, and Water Wars,
Vandana Shiva brings to public attention the power structures that support
privatization of water. The World Bank, The IMF and WTO provide financial aid
to State Governments to privatize water resources. The World Bank guarantees
contracts and profits for corporate giants. The World Bank makes
conditionalities—water profits, water apartheid, and all water for some. The
control of water is transferred from the state government to corporations. This
has led to many inequities in society. Maude Barlow, an Environmental activist
in her trilogy Blue Gold (Blue Gold, Blue Covenant, and Blue
Future) talks about how privatization of water poses a challenge to the
poor. In her texts, she talks about the power structures that support
privatization of water. The World Bank and the IMF backed transnational
corporations control the world’s water resources. The government signs away
their control on water to the corporate. Water trade is purely based on profit.
Water is subjected to the market where distribution is determined on one’s
ability to pay.
Both Vandana
Shiva and Maude Barlowe have enumerated the innumerable challenges posed by
privatization of water. Denial of access to essential resources like water is
one of the main challenges posed by privatization of water. Vandana Shiva in Globalisations
New Wars: Seed, Water and Life Forms
says, “Water monopolies deny people access to water both by carving out
private property within public water range, and by privatizing public services,
which increases water costs. . . .” (4)
The same idea is
conveyed by Shiva in Making Peace with the Earth where she talks about
“half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking
water” (84). Maude Barlow also cites many instances of the poor denied access
to water resources.
Privatization of
water creates monopolies where a multinational company controls water
exploiting the poor and the vulnerable populations. In the absence of a strong
regulatory system, or the deregulation of the State government, transnational
companies may exploit vulnerable populations by charging excessive prices or
providing substandard services. Shiva in Water Wars says, “Every level
of Government –including regional and local—is now forced to adhere to rules
that it did not negotiate or agree to. Policy – making is no longer in the hands
of local or national governments but in the grip of large multinational
corporations”(97).The same idea is conveyed by Maude Barlow’ in The Blue Future:“
Transnational corporations often override
democracy at all levels of
government. The thing
we most need . . . is undermined by
these powerful interests that write the rules to promote their profits”
(213).She also adds that the resource grab affects both environmental
protection and the equitable sharing of water. Donald Worster confirms “The
hydraulic society of the West is increasingly a coercive, monolithic and
hierarchical system ruled by a power elite based on the ownership of capital and
expertise.” (7)
The vulnerable
populations are dispossessed off their lands, and livelihoods. They are
displaced and reduced to mere destitute. Their livelihoods have been affected;
the resources that sustained them are lost. They are denied their water rights.
Adivasis and Dalit communities are affected. They suffer due to water scarcity
and water pollution. Theirs is a true case of human rights violation. Rural
women and girl children have to walk miles for collecting water. Displaced
populations have lost their communities’ livelihoods and ancestral homes.
Privatization has failed to deliver water to the poor. Barlow writes in Blue
Covenant,“ Water privatization
has failed to deliver water to the poor,
undermined the human right to water, taken place at the expense of democratic
principles and with minimal accountability to local citizens, and
has led to foreign control of water and the creation of monopolies”(60).
Water
privatization is focused on profit making rather than serving the public. Water
privatization is a plan of the elite. The neoliberal policies of globalization favours
free trade and free marketing. They favour global investments and pursue their
vested interests by controlling the state governments of other nations. The
World Bank gives support to the transnational companies to privatize resources
like water. Rivers are dammed and diverted to meet the needs of big water companies.
The World Bank gives loans to State governments to build dams which takes away
water from the common man. The water in the dams is utilized by the industry
and the urban elite. Water privatization has intensified the use of water and its
access depends on one’s ability to pay. Barlow in Blue Gold points out,“
Water trading as carried out by large
transnational corporations, is
based on principles of profit,
which are driving the price of
water out of reach of the poor”(73) .She cites many
examples of water rights trading becoming a big business in different
parts of the world. Water resources will be governed by the private
interests of the corporate and the wells of local farmers will run dry. In third
world countries, the poor finds it unable to pay for the rising cost of water.
Resources are accumulated or stored to raise prices and enhance corporate
profits. The world has become a place where even water, a vital element of
man’s existence, is for sale. The profit making agenda of the rich corporate is
related again in Blue Covenant, “Infact, the private companies became
owners of the entire infrastructure. . . They
were given licenses to run
the water system. . .as well as free
rein to charge what they liked, lay off employees and makes
much profit as they could” (37). The World Bank
stated that water should be treated as an economic commodity which supports the principle that
corporations can set water prices high
enough to not only recover the cost of their investment, but also to make profits
for their investors. Again in Blue Future she speaks about industrial and commercial
interests that make profit from what is essentially a public trust. “In the
private sector, water rates are set in order to generate profits required to
pay private investors”(56).This market oriented
pricing violates the right to water. The poor are unable to pay high
prices for water. Vandana Shiva also points out the profit motives of
transnational corporations in Globalisations New Wars: Seed, Water
and Life Forms: “the public pay the price while transnational companies
make the profit. . . Privatization very
quickly leads to a steep rise in the price of water”(82 ). Shivain Making
Peace with the Earth talks about the
World Bank making paradigm shifts to
private sector conditionalities,
“ World Bank loan conditionalities
have many paradigm shifts built
into them – the shift from water
for life to water for profits, from
water democracy to water apartheid, from
some for all to all for
some”(84). Shiva in Water Wars states that water business is identified
as the most profitable industry - “Large corporations covet this lucrative
market” (88). Donald Worster opines: “The concentration of power within human
society that comes from controlling water was a deliberate goal of ambitious
individuals, one they pursued even in the face of protest and resistance” (20).
While the water
companies focus on profit, they fail in public accountability. They do not take
the responsibility of providing clean drinking water to the common man. As
water becomes a tradable commodity, more underground water resources are
extracted. When water becomes scarce they resort to the recycling process or
sometimes provide contaminated water to common man. Drinking polluted water
makes people sick or spreads diseases. Extraction of underground resources in
large quantities leads to water scarcity. Water in large quantities is hoarded
by water companies who sell water for high prices whenever water becomes
scarce. According to Shiva, “water scarcity is clearly a source of corporate
profits” (Water Wars99).The impact of water scarcity is felt in many
parts of the world which leads to conflicts and protests. Maude Barlow says
“The world’s water crisis is having a devastating impact on quality of life for
billions of the world’s citizens caught between the twin realities of water
scarcity and water pollution” (Blue Gold 51). The current rate of water
consumption will lead to depletion of water. Water scarcity has afflicted
indigenous people who are deprived of their livelihood. At the same time it has
helped transnational companies make profits out of selling water for high
prices.
In the words of
Karen Bakker, “These crisis are simultaneously discursive, social, and
material: the social construction and political mediation of a very real set of
deteriorating environmental conditions. In practical terms, it means that (in
many cases) access to water is a problem of distribution rather than absolute
availability. . . .It suggests that scarcity is socially constructed.” (218)
Water
privatization has intensified environmental degradation which also have
impacted the poor .Pollution has adversely affected the poor; drinking polluted
water has made them sick. Both Vandana Shiva and Maude Barlow provide evidences
of destruction of water resources. Barlow in Blue Gold records how
modern industrial cultures have destroyed water bodies due to the corporate
control of the world’s water resources and distribution system. “Our modern
advanced cultures driven by acquisition and convinced of their supremacy over
Nature have failed to revere Nature. The consequences are evident in every
corner of the globe: parched deserts and cities, destroyed wetlands,
contaminated water-ways and dying children and animals” (4). Damming and
diversion of water system is also a source of pollution. Population growth,
increase in consumption of water, pollution of the water system, global warming,
all affect the earth’s water system. Rob Nixon
opines that the environment is subjected to
“a slow violence” which “ slowly
unfolds environmental catastrophes that present formidable representational obstacles that can hinder
our efforts to mobilize
and act decisively” (2).
Privatization of
water leads to a widening gap between the rich and the poor. Privatization of
water is a creation of the global corporate who follow the neoliberal policies
of the west. Neoliberal policies are profit oriented. They cater to the needs
of the world market system where resources in large quantities are extracted
for mass production. Neoliberal global policies deregulate state governments
and further the decline of the nation states. Consequently all resources of the
state come under the control of a powerful corporate who decides how to
distribute resources. As global corporate has a profit motive, resources are
sold for higher prices which leads to inequities in society. The rich can buy
water with their money power but the poor cannot afford to buy water for high
prices which widens the gap between the poor and the rich. The elite of a
nation have special water access. Barlow quotes ,“ In many countries of the world, the elite of society
are gaining privileged access to water , to greater and greater degrees”(Blue
Gold67).The disparity of water access between the rich and the poor was
violently protested, but the poor are
left behind by governments to fend
for themselves. According to Rob Nixon, “for
it is those people lacking resources who are the principal causalities are of
slow violence. Their unseen poverty is compounded by the invisibility of the
slow violence that permeates so many of their lives” (4).Water is a human right and should not create monopolies
that widen the gap between the rich and the poor. This widening gap creates
inequalities in society leading to protest marches and resistant acts.
Neoliberal
policies favored the transnational corporate who rule markets for making
profits. This resulted in the erosion of the role of the state government. In
the words of Melanie Pichler:
Resource
policies were shaped by a withdrawal of the State and the creation of
favourable conditions for foreign investors. The pressure of international
financial institutions and their structural Adjustment Programs (SAP’S) as well
as the global policy shift towards neoliberalism, contributed to these
developments. In these contexts, the roles, rights and responsibilities of
states and corporations changed significantly. (4)
Globalization
unleashes inequities between individuals, social classes and countries of the
world. Globalisation has integrated nations of the world. The movement of goods
and services has become a normal state of affairs. But there are people who are
apprehensive about the idea of a single global economic system and its
aftermath.
“Nonetheless,
there is widespread unease about the current state of international economic
relations. Activists worry that footloose corporations may undermine attempts
to protect the environment, labour and human rights” (Frieden7).
Conclusion
Vandana Shiva
and Maude Barlow have declared privatization of water a failure. It has
failed to cater to the needs of the
common man .The selected texts portray factual evidences of the politics behind privatization of water
and how it has impacted the environment
and above all the poor. By pointing out the challenges faced by the poor due to
water privatization, both these activists have made the public aware of the
need to have environmental justice movements that fight inequities and
injustices in society. Water is a human right and hence shouldn’t be denied to
the poor.
Works Cited
Bakker,
Karen. (2010). Privatizing Water:
Governance Failure and the World’s Urban Water Crisis. Cornell University
Press, 2010.
Guha,
Ramachandra and Juan Martinez-Alier. “Introduction.” Varieties of Environmentalism: Essays North and South. Earthscan,
1997.
Maude,
Barlow. Blue Covenant. The New Press,
2007.
---. Blue Future.
The New Press, 2013.
Maude,
Barlow, & Clarke, T. W. Blue Gold.
Left Lord Books, 2003.
Frieden,
Jeffry A.”Will Global Capitalism Fall Again?” Bruegel Essay and Lecture Series.
30 June, 2006.
Nixon,
Rob. Slow Violence and Environmentalism
of the Poor. Harward University Press, 2011.
Pichler,
Melanie., et.al. Fairness and Justice in
Natural Resource Politics. Routledge, 2017.
Shiva,Vandana. Globalisations
New Wars: Seed, Water and Life Forms. Women Unlimited, 2005.
---.
Making Peace with
the Earth. Women Unlimited,
2012.
---. Water Wars.
South End Press,2002.
Worster,
Donald. Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity
and the Growth of the American West. Oxford University Press, 1985.