In 1995 Ismail Serageldin, vice-president of the World Bank made a statement about future wars. He said that as XX century wars has been fought for the control of oil, the XXI century ones will be fought for water.
After the GAIA seminar and after the march we took part, I couldn’t but think about the issue. I mean, the ring should bell in everybody’s mind every few hours for water is such a common sight in our life: still in a glass, running from the tap, boisterous in the toilet, tickling under the shower … water is just so present and so necessary.
According to Water Wars by Vandana Shiva, water conflicts have two sides. The first is the real war fought at regional or national level . Often – and reading the book you’ll find many cases – political violence stems from control of scarce water resources.
The second one is paradigmatic. On one front we find cultures valuing water as something sacred, something that must be preserved and duly shared, a human as well as an ecological need. On the other, we find the entrepreneurial culture of greed, privatization, and appropriation of common resources. And if we want to give a face to these two opposed worldviews we find a multitude of local communities willing to retain water as a common, vital resource fighting back to a global government trying impose elite rule through the WTO, the NAFTA, the World Bank, the FMI …
I guess we all know where to stand, but to have a clearer, more informed idea read the book or have a look at this interview by Vandana Shiva.
http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/global/vshiva3.html
No comments:
Post a Comment