Posts Tagged ‘Blue Covenant’

Nary a drop without paying more than you would believe possible, anyway.  This is not a book review.  This is a “Unless you like resembling a well-heeled sheep, go read this book!” rant.
How much money do you earn in a month?  $1500?  $2000?  $5000?  Imagine if your water bill was a full third of that amount, please?  Now imagine making only $60 per month and paying $20 for water service.  With which horrific science fiction fantasy novel have I been indulging myself, you ask?  No fiction, science or otherwise.  I read “Blue Covenant” by Maude Barlow.  But horrific it certainly is, that I will grant you.

Barlow’s book details how clean, fresh, drinkable water is rapidly becoming the world’s shortest commodity.  And further, exactly how it is a commodity that will make oil prices and resultant wars look like a mere practice set.  I am going to try to restrain myself from giving a 10th grade summary book report, with all the gory parts on full display, because I really want you to FIND AND READ this book.

It is cogent and terrifying, the picture she paints of the shrinking water supplies being increasingly privatized.  What does that mean?  It means chances are good your “water utility”  is not really a public service, but a privately owned concern.  Because water “investors” are buying up water companies and rights as the hottest new profit on the planet.

They run trials, and you are already test animals in their lab.  Do you like those nifty advertised bottled waters?  Do you have six empty plastic bottles in the back of your car?  You are being trained to drink their product.  Tap water just isn’t as good you say?  Well, you pass the test for their purposes—-that bottled water IS tap water with a nasty oil-gobbling, pollution making plastic container wrapped around it.

But that isn’t the worst of it.  They do plan to own and bill you at their chosen rates for your actual tap water.  They ran the first tests in places like South America, where Bechtel Corp. bought up the public water companies in Bolivia.  They cut corporate costs by dumping waste waters, untreated, into the rivers and lakes.  They raised water rates and cut off those who couldn’t afford it.  In Bolivia, the median income was $60 per month, and the average water bill was $20.  They even billed people for RAINWATER captured in cisterns. When the people rioted in protest, there were shootings by Army troops called out to protect Bechtel’s interests.  Shortly after, the company WAS tossed out of the country.  But that is why the water-sellers are setting their goals on more “civilized” places now.

Where affluent Americans can be trained to pay …and pay more and more.  And even as the supply runs out, they will tell you that desalinization is the solution.  Never mind that the plants pump huge plumes of pollution into the ocean that produces the air you breath.  If they kill off enough of that, will  they try to sell you clean, breathable air along with the clean, drinkable water.  Perhaps there will be a discount for households that buy both?

If you think the cost of gas is too high, you can always walk or take the bus.  What do you do when the cost of water is too high?  If you think this is science fiction, think on this; water has been down-graded from a “human right” to a mere “human need” by organizations like the U.N. and the World Trade Organization.  Executives in water-selling businesses have stated their goal to own ALL the fresh water in the world.

And you are  likely already paying—because typically, when these vultures buy a public water company, they insist on all sorts of “upgrades” and get the public utility to PAY for it with your tax money; only then do they move in and raise your bills and fire the employees.

Cherish that glass the waitress puts on your table as she hands you a menu.  In a few years, it will cost you as much as the beer, if people don’t awaken in time. Read the book, find out where your water comes from….and prepare for thirsty times ahead.