Villagers demanding water turn unruly, 5 die in police firing (India)

[struggle4progress]

JAIPUR, JUN 13 (PTI)
Five people were killed and 22, including 15 policemen, were injured in police firing and heavy stone-pelting by farmers who blocked traffic on the Jaipur-Kota National Highway today, demanding adequate water.

The state government has ordered a judicial inquiry into the killings, Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria told PTI here. <snip>

Faced with acute drinking water problem, farmers of Sohella village staged the sit-in demanding more water from Bishalpur dam to meet their daily requirements. <snip>

http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=304235

[benburch]

1. Fresh water is going to be the next Oil.

Control of Water will become the ultimate power game.

[mojavekid]

2. Exactly what Colin Powell said,

Water is the Oil of the 21st century, wars will be fought over it.

[shantipriya]

3. water shortages

We don't realize how lucky we are!

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. If you think we are lucky, then maybe you don't realize the extent

of our problems.

Sure, they won't manifest for a couple years, but they're there.

Aquifers at an all-time record low. Permanent snow caps disappearing (meaning, when they're gone they will no longer feed our rivers), fresh water contamination returning to 1960's levels.

It scares me so much, I feel guilty every time I shave, thinking about that half-gallon of water I just wasted. I washed my car last weekend for the first time in over a year. I can just see me in twenty years, telling tall tales to the grandkids about how water didn't used to be coin-metered, and you were offered water for free at restaurants.

This might be a good time to invest in desalinization technology.

[mojavekid]

12. No Kidding,

Out here in L.A...

An excellent read is Marc Reisners, Cadillac Desert, concerned primarily with the West and Southwest United States, but goes much further. Also has a fascinating history on the Army Corps of Engineers, who have been so busy in the East and Southeast US.

[Judi Lynn]

4. But they have enough water for the Coca Cola plant?

Grab from google:

Coca-Cola Responsible for Decline in Groundwater Table in Rajasthan

The Hindu
June 17, 2004


Contrary to claims by the multinational soft drinks giant Coca-Cola that its bottling plant in Kaladera, near here, is not responsible for the decline in the ground water table, the Central Ground Water Board has found that the factory is indiscriminately exploiting the ground water reserves from deeper aquifers.

Investigations conducted by the Ground Water Board have revealed that the multinational company's plant in the Kaladera industrial area of Rajasthan is not only extracting colossal amounts of water but is also causing ecological imbalance in the region by disturbing the deeper aquifers through its heavy-duty borewells.

The probe was undertaken by the Board following a recent directive by the Consultative Committee of the Union Ministry of Water Resources. The committee wanted to know the extent of utilization of ground water by manufacturers of soft drinks and mineral water. The Ministry is reportedly collecting data and figures from various parts of the country before deciding upon the action to control the damage.

A senior hydro-geologist of the Ground Water Board's Jaipur regional office, who visited the Coca-Cola plant site thrice during the past few months, told The Hindu today that the unit had extracted 1,48,259 cubic metres of water within seven months from March to September 2003. While an additional extraction amounting to 1lakh cubic metres was estimated till the end of 2003-04, the figure during 2002-03 was 1,37,694 cubic metres.
(snip/...)

http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2004/1020.html

ALSO.........

Rising Struggles, Falling Water


Anti-Coca-Cola Agitation Picks up in Kaladera, Rajasthan
By Nagraj Adve
India Resource Center
September 24, 2004

It's a classic David versus Goliath story. Villagers facing diminishing livelihoods agitating against one of the largest soft-drink and bottled water companies in the world: Coca-Cola. Fortunately there are many Davids.

Over the last year-and-a-half, an agitation has been building up against a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Kaladera and adjoining villages near Jaipur, Rajasthan. With the intense anti-Coca-Cola sentiment in this area, about thirty villages and a number of organizations have mobilized under the banner of Jan Sangharsh Samiti (People's Committee for Struggle). Farmers from these villages hold Coca-Cola primarily responsible for declining ground water levels in the region and the resultant harm to local agriculture.

Kaladera, in Govindgarh block, is a large village about forty kilometers from Jaipur city. An overwhelming majority of its 12-13,000 inhabitants engage in agriculture. But it is also an education hub in the region, with schools and excellent colleges, thanks partly to the work of social reform organizations in the past. Many of its students come here from affected villages around.

Falling Water Tables, Sinking Hearts

This was earlier a fairly fertile region. "Even when there was famine in other parts of Rajasthan, the area around Kaladera was doing alright. But ground water has fallen sharply in the last few years," said a professor in a local college. This area has been a declared a 'dark zone', which means that digging new wells and installing pumps is illegal, and no loans are sanctioned towards this.
(snip/...)

http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/2004/risingstruggles.html

ALSO.........

India: Soft Drinks, Hard Cases
VANDANA SHIVA / Le Monde diplomatique March 2005 14mar2005
THE WATER DOSSIER



THE Indian government forced Coca-Cola out of the country in 1977. The company's return, in October 1993, coincided with the arrival of its arch-rival Pepsi. The United States multinationals now own 90 factories in India: Coca-Cola 52 and Pepsi 38. They describe these as bottling plants; actually they are pumping stations, each of which extracts up to 1.5m litres of water a day from the ground. It takes nine litres of clean water to manufacture a litre of Coke.

Women from near Plachimada begin their milelong trek in search of water in a region suffering from three years of scant rainfall. Mathruboomi Daily photo by Madhuraj

The processes used in manufacturing these soft drinks are inherently damaging. The extraction of groundwater deprives poor people of their fundamental right of access to clean water. The factories spew out toxic waste that threatens health and the environment. And the products themselves are harmful — the Indian parliament has set up a up a joint committee to inquire into the presence of pesticide residues.

In March 2000 Coca-Cola opened a plant at Plachimada, a village in the Palakkad district of the southern state of Kerala, intended to produce 1.2m bottles of Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, Limca, Thums Up, Kinley Soda and Maaza every day. The conditional licence granted by the local panchayat (village council) authorised the use of motorised pumps, but the company drilled more than six wells and illegally installed high-powered electric pumps to extract millions of litres of pure water. The level of the water table fell from 45 to 150 metres below the surface.

Coca-Cola then polluted what little water it had not stolen from the community. It started by dumping waste outside its premises. During the rainy season, this spread into paddy fields, canals and wells, causing a serious health hazard. The company abandoned this practice and began pumping dirty water into dry boreholes that had been drilled on-site for the disposal of solid waste. This contaminated the aquifers.
(snip/...)

http://www.mindfully.org/Water/2005/India-Coca-Cola-Pepsi14mar05.htm

[Karenina]

8. Whoomp! Dey it is!

n/t

[struggle4progress]

9. Four Day March Against Coca-Cola in Tamil Nadu Announced (9 July)

Newindpress
June 11, 2005

TIRUNELVELI: The Tamiraparani and Under Ground Water Protection Committee will take out a four-day awareness march from Papanasam to Punnaikayal on July 9 to create awareness among the public about the adverse impact of the Coca Cola plant coming up at the SIPCOT complex in Gangaikondan.

R Krishnan .. said the Government had not elicited the opinion of local villagers before granting permission to the South Indian Bottling Company (SIBC), a production unit of Coca Cola, to set up its plant at Gangaikondan.

He also charged the Government with not giving due consideration to the adverse impact the plant will have on the environment.

He alleged that there will be depletion of groundwater in the area if the plant is allowed to come up. <snip>

http://www.indiaresource.org/news/2005/1069.html


Stir against resumption of Coca-Cola production
From our correspondent

11 June 2005

TRIVANDRUM — The people's battle for water in Kerala has taken a new turn with the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) coming out openly against the judiciary in the controversial Coco-Cola case.

Thousands of DYFI activists confronted the judiciary yesterday by taking out marches to the Cochin High Court and district courts in 14 districts to register their protest against the order allowing the US multinational to resume production in their bottling plant at Plachimada in Palghat. Senior DYFI and CPM leaders inaugurated the march at different places declaring people as the sole custodian of water.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2005/June/subcontinent_June382.xml§ion=subcontinent&col=

[Judi Lynn]

10. Profound wording. It needs to be respected. What a shame it isn't, yet.

From the 2nd article:pblockquote]Senior DYFI and CPM leaders inaugurated the march at different places declaring people as the sole custodian of water.

What can the greedy among us be thinking to justify claiming the very water people need for life itself as their personal property?

[enough]

13. The push to "claim" water for profit is happening everywhere.

In my neighborhood, they call it "public" water, even though it's water for profit of a corporation. And people think they want that. ("The private sector can always do things more efficiently than government" is the mantra.)

---------

Water Riots: the true harbinger of the 21st Century.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Done stealthily, behind everyone's backs... for the benefit of so few.

It's a vicious, greedy crime, possible because they have powerful allies who benefit as well.

What normal child would see this rationalized evil as a worthy goal for his life direction? Oh, to become a professional HOG, to follow the _Bush Creed: Do unto others afore they do it unto me (Pre-emptive sin).

[landoisnum1]

6. Are we doing anything about this?

[Massachusetts]

7. Naw

Freedom first, then oil, then food er...um, then water....oooops..to late.

[NYC]

11. Azurix tried to privatize water in Florida. (Enron)

About 2 or 3 years ago? I have a vague memory of it.

http://www.medrc.org.om/new_content/industry_news/Nov00/story2.htm

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe/daily/20000828/fco28069.html

Azurix Corp, the global water company spun off from energy powerhouse Enron Corp that has been struggling of late, said Rebecca Mark has resigned as chairwoman and chief executive...

Mark, who led Enron's international power-development projects beginning in the early '90s, established the water company two years ago following Enron's $2.2 billion acquisition of Britain's Wessex Water PLC, a water-distribution and sewage company.

Enron's Grab for Florida's Water

http://www.whoseflorida.com/azurix.htm

Dead in the Water: Enron's grab for Florida's water was factor in collapse

Sunday, March 17, 2002

By MICHAEL POLLICK and CHRIS DAVIS, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

While Jeb Bush was running for Florida's governor in the summer of 1998, Enron Corp., a fast-growing Houston energy broker, was diversifying into a potentially lucrative new field — privatization of water supplies.

[Coexist]

15. don't get me started about buying water resources in Florida

Zephyrhills (owned by Nestle) is a prime example of selling something that belongs to the community. People used to swim there - it used to be public land.

Nestle has always been, and will always be, an EVIL corporation. Rotten to the core.

http://www.saveamericaswater.com/fl/flnews102200a.html
<snip>
Crystal Springs (Pasco County) is slowly dying as a result of the pumping for Zephyrhills Springwater, as is the Hillsborough River of which it is the source.Photos have previously been sent to Attorney General Butterworth and the DEP, and, last month, the owner of the spring was caught red-handed overpumping his permit for the water he sells to Nestle/Perrier !! Yet, nothing was done to him for breaking the law when it clearly states on his permit specific guidelines he must stay within! This company has not been granted an increase to their Crystal Springs permit because they cannot prove it will not harm the environment, so the owner just TOOK the extra he felt was needed to supply the demand that overadvertising has caused, which he cites as the reason his increase should be granted! This company is of FOREIGN origin, yet they come to the USA and get away with whatever they want to because they are the almighty milti-billion dollar Nestle and think everyone is afraid to challenge them."

[Massachusetts]

14. "Villagers demanding water turn unruly, 5 die in police firing (India)"

This has been happening for a while at various locations around the world, most notably Israel.

The Israeli's have been Draining Palestinian wells for years (an underlying problem that continues to spur hatred). Momentum is picking up, and it WILL NOT be suppressed until it is dealt with on a GLOBAL basis.