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Workers-Control-Over-Prod
20th August 2012, 23:07
More than 1 Billion humans lack access to clean water, every fourth child on the world regularly drinks unclean water. More than 2.6 Billion humans do not have access to adequate sanitation. While the world's population has tripled in the 20th century water consumption grew six-fold. For peasants in India, water is a good that is increasingly becoming scarce as droughts become more frequent and ruin their livelihoods. The global situation of the (rural) poor is becoming increasingly dire as corporate farming goods and methods occupy the world's fields, and water plays a large role in this struggle. In Kenya, with its vast mountain springs, the floral industry siphons the water from the springs the majority of the time, leaving people in the region of these insitutions without water for large parts of the day, leaving the rivers dry, killing farm animals and destroying the already diminished livelihood of the rural poor. This particular type of capitalism, the neo-liberal sort, is running into the boundaries of nature, throwing tens of millions more humans into utter destitution, "poverty".


Total industrial water use in the world is about 22%, with high-income countries using 59% [to 88%! in the USA], and low-income countries using a minuscule 8%. These figures will rise with industrial production. . .

130 Billion "gallons" of water is used in the US a day while the leading water consuming sectors are 1) oil refinement with 1 Billion a day 2) electricity and power with a quarter of a billion gallons a day and 3) Industry uses 18 Billion a day for cooling machinery, cooling chemical reactions etc. The industrial need of water is though decreasing as the productive forces gain in sophistication " Efficiency measures have been implemented that have reduced industrial water usage in some refineries by more than 50%."

Coal plants, fossil fuel industries and manufacturing rely on large amounts of water. As alternative energy sources become cheaper and more pressing due to climate change, solar energy and above all Wind energy is growing. The world in reality is not in a natural water crisis, it is in an artificial water crisis. Over 70% of the Earth's surface is made up of water. The only reason that the basic human need for water is not fulfilled for such a large part of humanity, is because in Capitalism only efficiency and costs determine production. So springs are used for the fulfillment of the sought for profit of industry, for Capital, contrary to desalination plants which cost roughly four times as much as traditional spring water. Water is yet another glaring example of capitalism, that people's lives are ruined merely for the fetish of economic efficiency and capital, 'Profit before People'. While 1 Trillion is yearly spent by the US for its military, while hundreds of billions are endlessly thrown at the banks, large portions of humanity are banned from access to the most basic human necessities.

Desalination plants powered by sea wind-parks are a crucial foundation to securing water needs.

Workers-Control-Over-Prod
6th October 2012, 04:05
Here is a video from AlJazeera which thought was rather interesting as to the capability and usage of modern desalination technology in Australia.

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cyu
3rd November 2012, 22:42
Interesting, I thought, that this came from Nature - one of the foremost journals of scientists...

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v490/n7421/full/490469a.html

a global food-pricing system that once benefited farmers, bakers and consumers had been undermined by financial derivatives created by investment banks.

Some environmentalists argue that putting a price on fresh water may be our best bet to save the planet's supply. The more it costs, the less we will waste. Modern society's predominant focus on market-delivered components of well-being, and our almost total dependence on market prices to indicate value, means that we generally do not measure values other than through markets.

There are more than 100 indices that track companies in water-related businesses. Several offer healthy returns.

As a result, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund — both always on the lookout for market-based security — have been pushing countries to privatize their resources. These include the lakes, streams and reservoirs of Argentina, Bolivia, Ghana, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria and the Philippines. What better guarantee of prosperity than a rush of multinationals determined to generate revenues from something no one can manage without?

Ultimately, the financial instrument will have the same basic structure as the index funds which brought unprecedented levels of speculation to the global grain market. if the natural-gas industry can pay more for water than soya farmers, then the gas drillers will get the water and the soya will not.