The World's Water Crisis
 		 
This is what the present is like in Africa, and what the future will be like for the entire world:
Across the city children and adults are seen laden with containers in search of water wherever it can be found.
As if the shortage and filthy condition of most of the water available are not enough headaches for most of the residents, owners of the few chlorinated wells across the city or even open wells have resorted to selling water at higher than normal prices.
In parts of the city our reporter visited, it was observed that a gallon of water now sells for between 15 to 50 Liberian dollars depending on the quality of the water, the disposition of the well owner, and the desperation of the buyer.
"What we will do? We have to buy water at higher prices because those who own wells are concentrating on making profits. You either buy at their prices or you die of thirst," said Marshall Thompson of Carey Street who said they have cut down water ration to less than half gallon per person.
"I used to be able to pay for enough water for bathing, drinking, washing, and flushing commodes. But now we have to decide which of these to use water for and washing is not one of them," he said.

Story about the current (Dec. 2005) water shortage in Monrovia, Libera, from All Africa.

 

The water problem can be broken into two main areas:

  • Shortages
    By 2025, between one-half to two-thirds of humanity will be living with severe fresh water shortages.
  • Globalization
    In 2000, at the World Water Forum in the Hague, big business groups such as the Global Water Partnership and the World Bank shouted louder than United Nations officials and government members from over 140 countries. What happened? Water was designated as a human need not a human right. If it had been designated a right, then governments would be responsible for providing equal access to water, on a non-profit basis, to their citizens. Instead, private corporations now have the right to buy water-systems and sell access to water for their own profit.
  • French water companies Vivendi and Suez already own, or have controlling interests in, water companies in over 130 countries on all five continents. Combined, they sell water to over a hundred million people around the world. (Barlow & Clarke, 2002, p.85).

These are the decisions you have to make:

  • Are you a citizen who has a right to water, or are you a customer who should pay for water?
  • As multinational companies take over the earth's natural reserves of water, are you going to fight for the rights of people, or the rights of investors?

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