There are many areas of our planet where water is in short supply, and drinking water in even shorter supply. It is a commodity more valuable than oil, gold, or diamonds. That’s exactly why major corporations are so interested in controlling it…

By Egon E. Mosum

In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner there is a famous line, ‘Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.’

In some areas of the world, that is not only a line of verse, it is a reality. 

There are many areas of our planet where water is in short supply; and drinking water in even shorter supply.

One would think that this indispensable necessity to human life, where a lack of access for three days can be fatal, would be more dispensed.

It is a commodity more valuable than oil, gold, or diamonds, and where there is a valuable — or in this case — necessary commodity, greed raises its ugly head.

And there is no greater fountain of greed than that which flows from major corporations.

Everyone with access to media of any sort knows that major corporations seek to control the flow of oil and gas, fewer can imagine the same desire applies to water.

‘Increased privatization of strategic water resources will, according to many scientists and environmental activists, continue to erode public access to fresh and clean water if privatization continues.’ This report appeared in an article by Roar Bijonnes, an environmental activist writing in the Systems Change Alliance website.[1]

Not that corporations are above theft of water supplies when it serves current profits before they obtain legal rights to the water sources.

Swiss company Nestlé has been rather naughty in California, raising the ante on water availability. As it has been reported ‘At stake is control of the nation’s freshwater supply and billions in profits as Nestlé bottles America’s water then sells it back in plastic bottles.’

It was reported in a Guardian article that ‘Last year (2018) Nestlé siphoned 45m gallons of pristine spring water from the creek and bottled it under the Arrowhead Water label. Though it’s on federal land, the Swiss bottled water giant paid the US Forest Service and state practically nothing.’[2]

In the aforementioned article the former Chief Executive Officer of Nestlé was quoted as saying ‘At its current pace, the world will run out of freshwater before oil, Brabeck said, and he suggests privatization is the answer.’

Well, that may be the answer for the corporation that controls the acquisition, storage, and distribution of water — for profit. It isn’t a very good answer for the consumer who doesn’t have much choice as to access to water when it’s owned by a corporation.

Oil is privately controlled, gas is privately controlled; our food is privately controlled. Has it been the experience of the reader that prices for these necessary commodities have remained stable, or have they skyrocketed over recent years?

We can turn down the thermostat a bit to conserve use of the commodities of oil and gas, we can go on a diet with respect to food. But it is rather a large challenge to change human biology and cut down on water consumption necessary to support life and health.

Municipalities which at present control much of our water supply, do not have to make a profit, they do not have stockholders to answer to. Public corporations seek to maximize their profits and the value of their shares of corporate stock.

Perhaps a conflict of interest may be visible to the discerning consumer. Scotch we can give up, or buy a rotgut version. Water? We’re pretty much stuck with what the world supplies, whether it comes out of a well, a river, or a plastic bottle packaging tap water in a fancy and expensive label.

With what Nestlé has done in California is enough to make us contemplate giving up chocolate milk, and the other thousands of products they produce and sell at a profit.

This is not to say that municipalities are the be all and end all of dispensers of utilities and necessities to the public, but many of those in charge can be voted out by the consumer if they perform below minimum standards.

However, John Q. Public can’t vote on the board members of a major corporation, unless they own the stock. And if they do, it will normally not be in such amounts that the vote they cast will have any significance.

If our citizenry has certain inalienable rights, access to water should probably be pretty high on that list.

Try not paying your phone bill, what happens? Eventually you can’t make a call. Try not paying your oil and gas bill, and eventually, they’ll turn off the heat. 

You can buy a pre-paid phone, you can put on a sweater, but what happens if some corporation that owns access to your drinking water cuts off the supply?

Three days, you won’t need that water anymore, nor food; nor oxygen. You will only require the services of an undertaker.

Is this a power we wish to be controlled by a corporation interested in profits more than people—like they all are?

‘One of the most important struggles being waged around the world against corporate control is over who owns our water.’[3]

That quote was from an article written twenty years ago.

Did you ever drink bottled water? Did you know the corporate markup on that supposedly ‘pure’ water which is basically tap water with a public relations department is sold to you at a markup between one hundred fifty and a thousand times?

That’s a lot of profit for the corporations pushing plastic bottles of H2O. One might understand that those kinds of markups would make the corporations rather interested in controlling the water supply.

In a study two years ago, ‘which studied 109 countries, it was concluded that the highly profitable and fast-growing bottled water industry is masking the failure of public systems to supply reliable drinking water for all.’[4]

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE

Anybody who can read and has lived for at least twenty years is aware that while a policeman might be our friend (some might disagree) there is no doubt that major multi-national corporations are not.

Time after time they have been sued, fined, and even criminally charged for the commercial and penal violations they commit with respect to the public.

They have sold us adulterated and mislabeled food, they provide us with such healthful products as tobacco and alcohol which can impact on our durability as individual consumers. They have sold us exploding cars and electronics, and dangerous medicines.

Now, not only are they seeking to control our drinking water, they are succeeding at doing so. It doesn’t take much imagination that with monopoly on a crucial resource and human necessity like water, corporate profits and power will soar like never before.

What will happen to those who can’t afford to pay the bill for drinking water when the corporate collection department turns it off for non-payment?

As a citizen, as a human being who is dependent upon drinking water for your very existence, you might wish to get involved and contact your supposed representatives in government and protest against any privatization of water.

The life you save may be your own.

[1] CORPORATE GIANTS TO SOAK UP WORLD’S WATER SUPPLY Bijonnes, SYSTEMS CHANGE ALLIANCE https://systemschangealliance.org/corporate-giants-to-soak-up-global-water-supply/

[2] THE FIGHT TO STOP NESTLE’ FROM TAKING AMERICA’S WATER Tom Perkins, 10/29/19 THE GUARDIAN https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/29/the-fight-over-water-how-nestle-dries-up-us-creeks-to-sell-water-in-plastic-bottles

[3] WHO OWNS THE EARTH’S WATER, Donahue 8/05 http://pauldonahue.net/who_owns_earths_water.html

[4] How the Bottled Water Industry is Masking the Global Water Crisis Bouthel, 4/4/23 United Nations University https://unu.edu/article/how-bottled-water-industry-masking-global-water-crisis