INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
Indian Water Activists Launch Anti-Privatization Campaign |
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by Rahul Kumar OneWorld.net Entered into the database on Tuesday, February 07th, 2006 @ 14:22:20 MST |
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Water activists and non governmental organizations in north and central
India have joined hands to fight water privatization initiatives by Indian state
governments, oppose World Bank funding, discourage the $200 billion river-linking
project, encourage conservation and provide for alternative water policies. In a Press Conference on Thursday nearly a dozen non governmental organizations
working on water rights, conservation and activism announced the launch of a
campaign to save India’s most pious holy river – Ganga. The campaign
begins on February 28 with a penance and an apology to river Ganga from a Hindu
temple in the hill township of Tehri, about 400 kms north of Indian capital
New Delhi. Giving the reasons for launching the campaign, chairperson of the Research
Foundation of Science Technology and Ecology (RFSTE) Vandana Shiva, said: “Government
policies, globalization and massive funding for water projects in the name of
water reforms will take away water from the poor to the rich. Mega projects
cannot bring water to people, but can definitely take it away from them.” The activists stressed that their campaign will bring water democracy by ensuring
that every drop is conserved, harvested and shared by people. “Water is
a commons. Our fight is for water as a common resource. We condemn every policy
that makes water a commodity of the State,” Shiva thundered. Well known Indian conservation movement - Chipko Aandolan’s Sunderlal
Bahuguna said: “The creator of the holy Ganga - the Gangotri glacier –
has decreased and a desert is coming up in the mountains. I believe that tree-felling
in the Himalayas and global warming are shrinking the glacier. I have stopped
eating rice because paddy harvesting consumes a lot of water.” “Dams are thought to be a source of water but these are a temporary source.
These have a short life span and once a dam gets filled up with sand and silt,
it is rendered useless and has to be abandoned. Unfortunately dams are being
constructed as these provide for a good construction business,” Bahuguna
lamented. He hit out at the massive river linking scheme of the Indian government which
he felt will leave the rivers polluted and depleted. He added that perennial
rivers like the Yamuna and the Ganga will not have any water left because of
such projects therefore such schemes have to be opposed by people. The river linking project, announced by the Indian government in 2003, plans
to divert water from surplus rivers to rivers which are deficit. The project
is being promoted for increasing the irrigation potential and controlling floods
and plans to link up the Himalayan rivers as well as rivers in peninsular India. India’s first river linking project – the Ken-Betwa Link –
came in for scathing criticism from the activists. Bhartendu Prakash from the
central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh said: “Corporates are eyeing the
two rivers – Ken and Betwa. Their linking will lead to water logging in
some regions while creating a water deficit in others. Also nearly half of the
famous Panna Tiger Reserve will drown because of other water and power related
projects.” Prakash said: “People would have to be relocated and rehabilitated, which
would cause many other problems. These projects on the two rivers are disastrous
from the ecological, humanitarian and cultural aspects and will destroy all
kinds of life in central India. A fraud is being thrusted on the people in that
the Ken-Betwa project will do wonders for them.” Water policies recently adopted by states like Maharashtra and Rajasthan were
condemned by the speakers. Shiva said: “The governments in India are buckling
under pressure from the World Bank. But we will protest against privatization
all over the country – whether in Delhi, Rajasthan or Maharashtra. These
policies help declare water as a state property which later facilitates its
conversion into private property.” Chairperson of Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS) Rajendra Singh added that a community-based
water system that had existed for centuries and had successfully conserved water
has been taken over by the government and ripped apart. He said: “Our
leaders have not understood the global politics of water in which MNCs will
make profits while people will pay a heavy price for water.” Giving an insight into the scuttling of the process of privatization of water
in Delhi, SA Naqvi from the Water Workers Alliance’s said: “Many
people think that the Delhi government and the World Bank have cancelled the
process of privatizing water in Delhi due to sustained lobbying and agitations.
The fact is that the loan application by the Delhi government to the World Bank
is on hold and has not been cancelled. Until it is cancelled we cannot be sure
that we have won the war against privatization in Delhi.” Naqvi added that water activists will now work on providing alternatives to
water policies so that the government as well as the people can be made to believe
that ways other than privatization exist in managing the country’s water
resources. Other people who addressed the press conference included the Chairperson of
Paani Morcha (Water Front) Sureshwar Sinha and Gandhi Peace Foundation’s
Anupam Mishra. The activists have decided to hold water parliaments in all those
cities in India where people are grappling with either scarce water resources
or polluted water. |