Davidge's proposed water grab on the north coast and his ties to overseas corporations put him on the same track as dozens of other global consortiums that are pushing their own privatization schemes, rushing to stake their claims and make their fortune on the "blue gold" of our time, and that are enjoying a period of unprecedented growth and expansion. One such corporationÑthe water giant, SuezÑoperates in 130 countries on five continents, and has targeted the U.S. as one of its major growth markets with its purchase of United Water, a company already operating in 17 states in the U.S. Vivendi Corporation, even larger than Suez in annual sales, and, like Suez, also French-based, operates in 70 countries. These two water titans share monopoly control of 70% of the existing world water markets!
One needn't ask what will become of the poor of the world as water becomes increasingly commodified, just another good to be bought and sold on the open market. Water is life. Those who can't afford it will die, as millions of the poor are already dying as a result of water scarcity and water pollution.
It is in this context that we must see Davidge's scheme, and also see that we are obliged to add our voices to those of people in Brazil, China, India, Ghana, South Africa, Mexico, the U.S. and many other countries, whose lives hang in the balance in the Water Wars.
How to Help
Don't buy bottled water!
I wonder how many of us could bring ourselves to say, I believe in enriching greedy corporations, widening the gap between rich and poor, using excess energy and throwing more junk into the waste stream, and drinking water that may be less pure than my tap water. Not one, I'm sure. But by buying bottled water, which many of us still do, we are making all of those statements.
The purchase of bottled water helps finance the companies that are trying to privatize our water; at about a dollar a liter, we're paying these companies a million dollars an acre-foot for water!
Drinking bottled water makes the statement that we don't need to keep our public water supplies clean because weÑthe eliteÑcan afford to buy bottled water. The poor continue to drink what is unsafe.
The habit also adds to pollution. The bottled water industry uses 1.5 million tons of plastic annually, adding toxic chemicals to the air both when the bottles are manufactured and when they are thrown away, and creating more toxics from the fuels used in transporting the bottles.
Finally, bottled water may be no more safe than your tap water, and is perhaps less so. The Natural Resources Defense Council studied 103 brands of bottled water and found that a third of these contained some level of contamination.
Make your voice heard.
Stop the Albion/Gualala water from being sold to the highest bidder. Davidge's proposal is open to public comment now and will be for the next 60 to 90 days. Get in touch through any of the contacts listed below and get your protests in to the State Water Resources Control Board. It doesn't have to be expert comment. All voices count in this process.
The Mendocino Environmental Center will host a protest party to which people can come and get help filling out the formidable-seeming, but actually very simple, protest form, on Thursday, October 24, 6 pm.
Here's how you can tune in:
Call the MEC at 468-1660. Call Linda Perkins at 937-0903. Look at the website www.gualalariver.org. Great information, well organized! And that site will link you to a lot of others dealing with the water issue.
Or call or e-mail the State Water Board directly and ask for an application and protest form. You'll be reaching Kathryn Gaffney, the state engineer who's handling Davidge's application. You can contact her at (916) 341-5360, or by e-mail at kgaffney@waterrights.swrcb.ca. gov.
Finally, read the book, Blue GoldÑThe Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water, by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke. That's where I got the data above about the global water companies and about bottled water.
Editor's Note:
In late September, Governor Davis signed legislation that is intended to stall Ric Davidge's proposed water grab. The bill requires a UC study of northern California coastal rivers to determine the effects of reduced flows on salmon and steelhead populations. The study is expected to take at least five years to complete, according to the bill's author, Assemblywoman Pat Wiggins of Santa Rosa.
However, Davidge said he will continue to seek a permit for the water export plan. "We're not going away," he stated. Davidge maintains that the study could be completed in two years, and said he hopes to be exporting water from the Albion and Gualala Rivers by 2004.
Meanwhile, the protest phase of the application process must be completed before the Water Board can consider invoking the new legislation, so it is very important to get protest forms and comments to the Board.
WANTED!
Watershed advocate to attend meetings of the Russian River Watershed Council as MEC representative. Meetings are once a month, in Cloverdale. Call the MEC, 468-1660.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 2002
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited