"When the well's dry

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"When the well's dry

Unquenchable: American’s Water Crisis and What We Can Do About It
http://www.worldwaterwars.com/

"When the well's dry, we know the worth of water," .But he was wrong.
Benjamin Franklin 1774

By A. Burt

Here is a direct quote of the meaning of “World Water Wars” from Michael Quinion, World Wide Words, published between 1996 -2006. This statement shows that the threat of a water war has been long in coming but as all things un-affected in America it has been over looked until it’s too late. Well it’s now too late.

Michael Quinion: "This is a term devised by environmentalists for a type of conflict (most probably a form of guerrilla warfare) due to an acute shortage of water for drinking and irrigation. About 40 per cent of the world’s populations are already affected to some degree, but population growth, climate change and rises in living standards will worsen the situation: the UN Environment Agency warns that almost 3 billion people will be severely short of water within 50 years. Possible flash points have been predicted in the Middle East, parts of Africa and in many of the world’s major river basins, including the Danube. The term has been used for some years to describe disputes in the southern and south-western United States over rights to water extraction from rivers and aquifers."

At least 40% of the world’s population is already affected in one degree or another and that percentage is growing fast. The United Nations Environment Agency warns that at least 3 billion people ill be severely short of water within 50 years.

A Suez spokesman argues that private companies fill a vital need and Suez agrees. “I always tell activists if they really want to hurt us, they should make the public sector work better,”

The World Bank, U.N. agencies, and a number of governments support a concept they call PPP, short for public-private partnerships. They encourage companies to invest heavily in the pumps, mains, and other infrastructure for delivering water in exchange for profit. In many big cities, up to half the water is lost to leaks and broken mains. Billing is often chaotic. Public water utilities, usually short of cash and expertise, struggle to meet fast-growing demand.

 
Suez and Vivendi each point to cases around the world where they have expanded service, sometimes with lower rates. Both insist that they sell service, not water, and stress that they operate on concessions that must be renewed. They say better systems mean that many poor people now have access to reliable water for much less than they paid itinerant vendors.

He also went on to say. “We have the money and the expertise, and we believe we can manage water better than states can,” said The World Bank, U.N. agencies, and a number of governments support a concept they call PPP, short for public-private partnerships. They encourage companies to invest heavily in the pumps, mains, and other infrastructure for delivering water in exchange for profit. In many big cities, up to half the water is lost to leaks and broken mains. Billing is often chaotic. Public water utilities, usually short of cash and expertise, struggle to meet fast-growing demand.
Suez and Vivendi each point to cases around the world where they have expanded service, sometimes with lower rates, even though many rates have risen from $20.00 up to $1,200.00 since they took over. Both insist that they sell service, not water, and stress that they operate on concessions that must be renewed. They say better systems mean that many poor people now have access to reliable water for much less than they paid itinerant vendors. They also failed to mention the vast amount of damage they have done to the countries they have acquired the water rights to. One look at Mexico City will tell you the truth. Suez has all the rights to provide and sell water in Mexico City, none of which is drinkable except in the wealthy areas.

 
The World Bank, U.N. agencies, and a number of governments support a concept they call PPP, short for public-private partnerships. They encourage companies to invest heavily in the pumps, mains, and other infrastructure for delivering water in exchange for profit. In many big cities, up to half the water is lost to leaks and broken mains. Billing is often chaotic. Public water utilities, usually short of cash and expertise, struggle to meet fast-growing demand.

 
Suez and Vivendi each point to cases around the world where they have expanded service, sometimes with lower rates. Both insist that they sell service, not water, and stress that they operate on concessions that must be renewed. They say better systems mean that many poor people now have access to reliable water for much less than they paid itinerant vendors.

 
“We don’t own these resources. We manage them and protect them.” But Ondeo’s American subsidiary faced a storm of protest after it took over Atlanta’s water supply in 1999. Consumers reported mysterious cuts, confused billing, and long delays for service.
What Suez and Vivendi failed to tell the protestors is that they now own over 40% of the World’s water and are buying as much as they can. They failed to mention that they expect to earn 10 billion or more and that Puerto Rico just hired Suez to supply their water. Or that they supply water for 230 million people World wide, mostly in third world countries.
Private Companies such as Gleick worry the private expansion could escape public control, although they are also a private company. In fact “Although companies are granted rights to market water — not ownership of the water itself — Gleick and others worry that an inevitable expansion of the private sector might escape essential public control. “Privatization has the potential to grow enormously because of the desperate need for water in the developing world, but water is too important to be left in purely private hands,” Gleick said.

 
James M.Olson, an environmental lawyer in an interview with Circle of Blue discusses the Great Lakes Compact: an international agreement intended to protect the Great Lakes Basin. Olson, an environmental lawyer specializing in natural resource law, highlights the possible unexpected consequences of the Compact. He is the senior principal at the law firm Olson, Bzdok & Howard.

 
These quotes come from http://www.worldwaterwars.com/ a renounced source on water research:

 
Great perils of the Great Lakes
Taken together, the Great Lakes are a vast inland sea representing over one-fifth of all surface fresh water on the planet. More than 40 million Canadians and Americans draw their drinking water from the lakes, which play a vital role in public health, the environment, industry, commerce, and leisure. But there are causes for concern: invasive species, declining water levels, uncertain quality of drinking water, and pressures to divert water from and into the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence basin. Signed into law by President George W. Bush Oct. 3, the Great Lakes Compact takes effect Dec. 8. The binational agreement, the fruit of regional initiatives, obliges eight American states and two Canadian provinces to work together to protect the lakes system.

 
The plant closed in 1984, but the Grand Canyon Trust estimates 110,000 gallons of radioactive groundwater still seep into the river there each day from the 16 million ton pile of radioactive waste

 
How the West's Energy Boom Could Threaten Drinking Water for 1 in 12 Americans
The Colorado River, the life vein of the Southwestern United States, is in trouble. The river's water is hoarded the moment it trickles out of the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado and begins its 1,450-mile journey to Mexico's border. The river is already so beleaguered by drought and climate change that one environmental study called it the nation's "most endangered" waterway. Researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography warn the river's reservoirs could dry up in 13 years. Now a rush to develop domestic oil, gas and uranium deposits along the river and its tributaries threatens its future. Although company executives insist they adhere to environmental laws, natural gas drilling has led to numerous toxic spills across the West. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, mining has already contaminated four out of 10 streams and rivers in the West.
Pickens Eyes Pipelines in Drought-Ridden U.S.

 
Pickens is in the planning stages of a $1.5 billion initiative to pump billions of gallons of water from an ancient aquifer beneath the Texas Panhandle and build pipelines to ship them to thirsty cities such as Dallas. A drought has drained water from Texas and much of the rest of the United States. That could make water an increasingly profitable commodity for those who hold the rights. According to his Web site, Pickens owns rights to more water than anyone else. "In general, there's a lot of it, it's just not in the right place," says Robert Stillwell, legal counsel for Mesa Water (and board member of the water supply district), which continues to acquire water rights in rural Texas. He dismisses questions about whether the water would be cost-competitive. For cities looking at their future water needs, he says, "cost becomes irrelevant." As far as Mesa's pipeline snaking across the Texas heartland, Stillwell insists that "it's going to happen, it's just a matter of when." [Editor: Pickens has also been seen expressing an interest in the water of the Great Lakes region.]

George W. Bush, his Family and Administration have known of the Water problem for years. So what have they done beside profit from it?
Water makes US troops in Iraq sick (Dick Cheney is still on the payroll of this former company owned by him )
WASHINGTON - Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using "unmonitored and potentially unsafe" water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, the Pentagon's internal watchdog says. A report obtained by The Associated Press said soldiers experienced skin abscesses, cellulitis, skin infections, diarrhea and other illnesses after using discolored, smelly water for personal hygiene and laundry at five U.S. military sites in Iraq.

World's Water Supply at Risk

 
One of the world's leading water experts explains how our local water supplies are threatened across North America and across the globe. Surface waters are being polluted, and we are mining our groundwater at unsustainable rates. At the very time when corporations are privatizing everything, our governments are allowing corporations to move in and take over the ownership of essential resources like water. The more our water becomes polluted, the more precious it becomes. The more desperate people are, the more they will pay for their water, and the more money there is to be made from cleaning it up.

Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water
The Bush administration is helping multinationals buy U.S. municipal water systems, putting our most important resource in the hands of corporations with no public accountability. The road to privatization is being paved by our own government. The Bush administration is actively working to loosen the hold that cities and towns have over public water, enabling corporations to own the very thing we depend on for survival. The effects of the federal government's actions are being felt all the way down to Conference of Mayors, which has become a "feeding frenzy" for corporations looking to make sure that nothing is left in the public's hands, including clean, affordable water As an example of water privatization, in Felton, Calif., a small regional utility ran the water system until it was purchased in 2001 by California American Water, a subsidiary of American Water, which is a subsidiary of Thames Water in London, which has also become a subsidiary of German giant RWE. Residents in Felton saw their rates skyrocket. A woman who runs a facility for people in need saw her water bill increase from $250 to $1,275 a month. The list of abuses in "Thirst," which represent only a handful of communities, are plentiful: In 2006, two top managers at a Suez/United Water plant in New Jersey were indicted for covering up high radium levels in drinking water ... In Milwaukee, Suez subsidiary United Water discharged more than a million gallons of untreated sewage into Lake Michigan because it had shut down pumps to reduce electricity bills ... In Stockton, Calif., a citizen's watchdog group reported that water leakage doubled in the first year that OMI/Thames took over system operations. In Indianapolis, customer complaints nearly tripled the first year of Veolia's contract, and inadequate maintenance resulted in hundreds of fire hydrants freezing in the winter ... Overall, it has proved to be a recipe for disaster.

 
Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water

 
The Bush administration is helping multinationals buy U.S. municipal water systems, putting our most important resource in the hands of corporations with no public accountability. The road to privatization is being paved by our own government. The Bush administration is actively working to loosen the hold that cities and towns have over public water, enabling corporations to own the very thing we depend on for survival. The effects of the federal government's actions are being felt all the way down to Conference of Mayors, which has become a "feeding frenzy" for corporations looking to make sure that nothing is left in the public's hands, including clean, affordable water As an example of water privatization, in Felton, Calif., a small regional utility ran the water system until it was purchased in 2001 by California American Water, a subsidiary of American Water, which is a subsidiary of Thames Water in London, which has also become a subsidiary of German giant RWE. Residents in Felton saw their rates skyrocket. A woman who runs a facility for people in need saw her water bill increase from $250 to $1,275 a month. The list of abuses in "Thirst," which represent only a handful of communities, are plentiful: In 2006, two top managers at a Suez/United Water plant in New Jersey were indicted for covering up high radium levels in drinking water ... In Milwaukee, Suez subsidiary United Water discharged more than a million gallons of untreated sewage into Lake Michigan because it had shut down pumps to reduce electricity bills ... In Stockton, Calif., a citizen's watchdog group reported that water leakage doubled in the first year that OMI/Thames took over system operations. In Indianapolis, customer complaints nearly tripled the first year of Veolia's contract, and inadequate maintenance resulted in hundreds of fire hydrants freezing in the winter ... Overall, it has proved to be a recipe for disaster.

Bush Administration Marks World Water Day by Shirking Responsibility to Fund Clean and Safe Water for America

 
Just four years after one of the nation’s most ambitious private water contracts collapsed in Atlanta, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is hosting a conference there to promote the private sector involvement in water. The Bush administration’s focus on the private sector flies in the face of a long-standing federal commitment to partnering with states and municipalities to provide safe and affordable water for Americans. Many cities across the country are operating drinking water and sewage systems designed and built before World War I. As our nation’s pipes and treatment systems age, more and more sewage spills into our streams, rivers, lakes and ocean, creating serious public health hazards. And population growth puts even more strain on our water systems. According to EPA’s most recent assessment, 45 percent of America’s are “impaired” – unsafe for fishing, swimming, or drinking.

 
Now a Quick Look At Nestle

 
Judge Orders Shutdown at Nestle Waters Operation in Michigan (USA)
November 25 – Judge Root’s ruling sets a precedent and clarifies many critical facets of Michigan water law, including important protections for the State’s lakes, streams, and wetlands, which form an essential role in Michigan’s natural resources, recreation, tourism, and economy. The ruling confined itself to the specific relationship between the pumping and diversion of water from the shallow unconfined aquifer that is part of nearby wetlands, two lakes, and the Dead Stream, a stream that Judge Root said “is not dead” but “a complex and beautiful ecosystem.”
Judge Orders Nestle Corporation to Shut Down the Pumps Feeding the Ice Mountain Water Bottling Factory
A judge on Tuesday ordered the company that produces Ice Mountain bottled water to stop drawing water from wells in a Michigan county, saying the operation has damaged the environment.

 
Attorney General Slams Nestlé’s Bottled Water Aspirations

 
California—Another big win for those hoping to keep the beverage giant out of McCloud, California. Now Nestle has got even more opposition. Earlier this week, Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. warned Nestle that "California will challenge the environmental plan for a bottled water plant in Siskiyou county. This is just the latest in a round of setbacks for Nestle, which announced recently that it would scale down the size of the plant. The pressure groups who have been fighting Nestle on the issue had many accolades for the AG.
Nestle Cancels Bottled Water Contract in McCloud, California

 
California—The Protect Our Waters Coalition (composed of the McCloud Watershed Council, California Trout, and Trout Unlimited) just reported that Nestle Waters North America has agreed to cancel its contract with the McCloud Community Services District that concerned the building of a controversial water bottling facility in the small town of McCloud, California. The environmental impacts of the project were hotly contested by local residents, environmental and wildlife groups, as well as national organizations fighting water privatization. Recently an Attorney General also spoke out against the project, and Nestle, succumbed to pressure.

 
Nestle water ads misleading: Canada green groups

Canada—As Toronto City Council gathers to consider passing a city-wide ban on bottled water, a new coalition is challenging advertising claims made by Nestle Waters that "bottled water is the most environmentally responsible consumer product in the world." The group, which includes Ecojustice, Friends of the Earth Canada, the Polaris Institute, the Council of Canadians, and Wellington Water Watchers, is filing a complaint under Canadian Code of Advertising Standards against Nestle Waters North America. The groups argue that Nestle is attempting to mislead the public on the true impacts of bottled water. The groups argue that Nestle Waters' ad contravened the Canadian Code of Advertising Standards by making false and misleading statements regarding the environmental impacts of its product. The complaint also alleges that some of the statements in the ad are contrary to guidelines that have been set by Canada's Competition Bureau and the Canadian Standards Association to ensure environmental claims are specific and verifiable.

 
But After all the Pathetic Representation Nestle Has Built Over The Years of Evil Business Practices, As In all Our Government…it is Rewarded.

The Nestlé Deal of the Century!

 
• A 50-year term, renewable for another 50 years
• The right to take 1,250 gallons per minute of spring water
• The right to take qualified water on an interim basis from district's springs for bulk delivery to other bottling facilities located in Northern California
• The right to construct pipelines and a loading facility
• Use of an unknown quantity of well water for production purposes
• Exclusive rights to one of the town's three springs
• One hundred years of exclusivity, during which time no other beverage business of any type may exist in McCloud
• Use of an undisclosed, perhaps unlimited amount of ground water
• The right to require the McCloud Community Service District to dispose of process wastewater
• The right to require the McCloud Community Service District to design, construct and install one or more ground water production wells on the bottling facility site for Nestlé's use as a supply for nonspring water purposes.
To Farther Add to Nestles Good Name Are this List of Nestle Waters and Brands That Have Been Banned:
Abatilles: France, Aberfoyle: Canada, Agua Campilho: Portugal, Agua Castello: Portugal
Al Manhal: Saudi Arabia, Arrowhead: USA, Ashbourne: UK, Baraka: Egypt
Bernardo (San Bernardo): Belgium, Great Britain, Japan, USA, Italy, and the Carribean
Buxton: UK, Calistoga: USA, Carola: France, Charmoise: Belgium,
Ciego Monteiro: Cuba, Contrex: France and 40+countries, Dar Natury: Poland
Deer Park: USA, Eco de Los Andes: Argentina, Fresh Water: Argentina
Furst Bismark Quelle: Germany, Ghadeer: Jordan, Glaciar: Argentina
Great Bear: USA, Harzer Grauhof Brunnen: Germany, Hepar: France
Hidden Spring: Philippines, Ice Mountain: USA (MI), Imperial: Spain
Korpi: Greece, Levissima: Italy, Brazil, Lora Recoaro: Italy, Mazowszanska: Poland
Minéré: Thailand, Montclair: Canada, Naleczowianka: Poland, Nestle Aquarel: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain
Nestle Kon Kon Yu Sui: Japan, Nestle Pure Life: Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Jordan, Lebanon, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan
Neuselters: Germany. Oasis: USA, Ozarka: USA, Panna: Italy, Europe, USA
Pejo: Italy, Peñaclara: Spain, Perrier: France; available in 160+ countries
Petropolis: Brazil, Plancoet: France, Poland Spring: USA, Quezac: France
Rhenser Mineralbrunnen: Germany, Rietenauer: Germany: Stuttgart, Munich only
Saint-Lambert: France: Paris vicinity only, Sainte-Alix: France, San Narciso: Spain
San Pellegrino: Italy; available in 100+ countries, Sansu: Turkey, Santa Maria: Mexico
Sao Lourenco: Brazil, Schoonspruit: South Africa, Sohat: Lebanon, Theodora Quelle: Hungary
Ulmeta: Italy, Valvert: France, Belgium, Valvita: S. Africa and other southern African countries
Vera: Italy, Viladrau: Spain, Vittel: France; available in 70+ countries
Zephyrhills: USA

These are all but not all of the water bottled by Nestle. Most is drawn well above the court ordered quota. In one Florida county Nestle was ordered to draw more tan 1,000,000 gallons of ground water a day. They instantly began drawing 3.5 million gallons a day and shipping it out of state

.
Canadian activist Maude Barlow author of the book Blue Gold, makes her position clear in its subtitle: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water. While agreeing the private sector has some role to play, she says water must remain firmly in public hands with no confusion between human right and commercial asset. "You can't have both as equal in law," she said.

 
So just Who Owns The Water?

 
Right now two could point at two French Companies, Suez and Vivendi, which owns 40% of the Worlds water. But according too experts in Europe and North America, analysts three are competing and predict that within the next 15 years these companies will control 65 percent to 75 percent of what are now public waterworks. The companies have worked closely with the World Bank and other international financial institutions to gain a foothold on every continent. They aggressively lobby for legislation and trade laws to force cities to privatize their water and set the agenda for debate on solutions to the world’s increasing water scarcity.

 
With the population now at a little over 6 billion with a good chance of it reaching 7 to 7.5 billion by 2016 that would mean that .000000001% would have the legal right to water without paying an outrageous rate for what should be rightfully theirs.
Water is life.

 
Each day all over the United States people have their water turned off in the ultimate gun-to-the-head move by water authorities to make people who are struggling to make ends meet, face death as an alternative to paying their overdue water bill. While there are countries where carrying water to meet ones needs, in order to sustain life, is commonplace, in the United States it is patently impossible to walk to a nearby water source and collect what is needed for survival

.
The Next World War Has Started. And it’s not over Oil But Water.

 
The reality we face is sobering: water -- nature's most essential element -- is becoming dangerously scarce. This will include battles in the various states and around the world.

Excerpt

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