The Hidden Sides of Water Wars

In 1995, the vice-president of the World Bank, Ismail Serageldin said, “If the wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century would be fought over water.” Unfortunately, the water war had already started and he among many others are a huge part of it. This war is specifically over the privatization of water in poorer countries and is dominated by the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO, the G-7 countries, and large water corporations. They are able to make themselves the victims and the poor the villains in the eyes of the public. On top of that they leave those they take over unable to turn back or resist. As long as the water war continues, these massive powers will see this as an opportunity to make money and will not let anyone interfere with their schemes even if they have to step on them while making themselves look good.

In order to hide any traces of greed the large powers will always seek a way to make them look like heroes. In the late 1990’s the International Monetary Fund teamed up with large water companies in order to “minimize poverty”. However, they did not and instead the opposite occurred. These large companies put high-tech systems such as card systems in Orange Farm, Africa that must be charged with money in order to obtain water. These people who had nothing could not pay such fees. It left many people helpless despite their empty words of kindness.

President Lyondon Johnson of the U.S. once said in 1966, "It should be made clear that we are in a race with disaster. Either the world's water needs will be met, or the inevitable result will be mass starvation, mass epidemics and mass poverty greater than anything we know today." Using these words he launched the “Water for Peace” progra...

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...ept privatization of their water. By choosing to survive many things are lost including their culture and traditions. In India, people used to give free water to people on the streets but now that water is owned they are not willing to give up on their commodity. Their strategies to water conservation and harvesting are also lost. Because of this even if the water company returns control to the citizens they would not be able to maintain their source.

Water is sacred, without water there is no life. Companies have realized this and are taking advantage of those who cannot protect themselves. They step on these types of people in order to raise themselves and in the process they corner these people leaving them die. They will never stop their money scheme as long as this water market is prosperous no matter how many countries and people they have to go through.