American mega-companies "secretly" making arrangements to co-opt India's water supplies

Plot Device · Mar 19, 2011

Most of you know I'm really big on oil and energy issues. But in the past 12 months I've learned of the intense connection between a nation's energy supply and its water supply, called the "energy-water nexus." So I pay attention to water as well now.

And as I continue to read about water, I get angry when I read of huge beverage companies like Coca-Cola puling legal coups in order to pry water rights away from small towns in the Rockies and the Appalacians. They sometimes secure 99-year leases of exclusive rights to a town's water, and charge the citizens outlandish fees for their own water while the company makes billions selling the water to the rest of the world.

Well, today I came upon a legal coup going on in India where a bunch of American companies are right now secretly converging in India to somehow (either via eenie-meenie-miney-moe or rock-paper-scissors or some kind of auction block) slice up the pie of India's water. This is taking place in a nation where water is already at an extraordinary premium. And what's worse is that over a thousand Indian farmers have literally committed suicide in the past decade over their inability to grow their crops due to a) being locked into contracts with GMO seeds and b) being unable to access the extra water needed to make most GMO seeds grow (regular seeds don't need anywhere near as much water as GMO seeds).

Here's the article about American companies engaged in the secret water dealings in India.

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/magazine/article1546194.ece

Wars over water

by KSHITHIJ URS
March 19, 2011

Senior executives of 16 North American companies are descending on Bengaluru in a “Water Trade Mission” initiated by the U.S. government's commercial service arm. Their purpose is to “tap the $50 billion Indian Water Market.” To attract American companies, the mission projects “tremendous” figures in the Indian water sector, from water treatment to taking over water supply services and waste water management....

...

Secret mission

The mission is cloaked in secrecy. The U.S. Commercial Services office in Bangalore has told us that Indian citizens are not allowed to have any information pertaining to the mission. Those details are reserved by the U.S. government solely for U.S. citizens and U.S. companies. But it is India's water that is up for sale. Though the objectives of the visit were put on the U.S. commercial services website more than three months ago, the chief Engineer of the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board learnt about them only when the Americans walked into his office last week.

If the privatisation of water is good for India, why is it being done so secretively?...

Calla Lily · Mar 19, 2011

Life imitates a James Bond movie (Quantum of Soalce). :Wha:

Zoombie · Mar 19, 2011

Firstly, they're evil.

Secondly, they're secrecy sucks.

Jstwatchin · Mar 19, 2011

Sounds like colonialism to me.

Rufus Coppertop · Mar 19, 2011

Plot Device said:
And as I continue to read about water, I get angry when I read of huge beverage companies like Coca-Cola puling legal coups in order to pry water rights away from small towns in the Rockies and the Appalacians. They sometimes secure 99-year leases of exclusive rights to a town's water, and charge the citizens outlandish fees for their own water while the company makes billions selling the water to the rest of the world.

Government sanctioned injustice. The Democrats or the Tea Party or the GOP should make this sort of thing a definite point.

The farmers of India should go back to using the good old fashioned seed they were using before Monsanto colonized their lives and the Indian government should tell Monsanto to fuck off.

Don · Mar 19, 2011

Rufus Coppertop said:
Government sanctioned injustice. The Democrats or the Tea Party or the GOP should make this sort of thing a definite point.

The farmers of India should go back to using the good old fashioned seed they were using before Monsanto colonized their lives and the Indian government should tell Monsanto to fuck off.

All the governments work together with Monsanto to create this insanity in the first place. I'm not sure the farmers are permitted to go back to old fashioned (heirloom) seeds. There's a lot of weird stuff going on out there in agriculture land.

Zoombie · Mar 19, 2011

Well, if they can't control us through information, and they can't control us with guns...

GeorgeK · Mar 19, 2011

Plot Device said:
This is taking place in a nation where water is already at an extraordinary premium. And what's worse is that over a thousand Indian farmers have literally committed suicide in the past decade over their inability to grow their crops due to a) being locked into contracts with GMO seeds and b) being unable to access the extra water needed to make most GMO seeds grow (regular seeds don't need anywhere near as much water as GMO seeds).

And thus you've shown the connection to the Food Industry (need a better catchphrase soundbite...Food Dip? Food Dependency?).

This is how our generation of billionaires are doing what they learned from the Rockefellers and other "heroes of American history". Money is King and nothing else matters.

sulong · Mar 19, 2011

Don said:
All the governments work together with Monsanto to create this insanity in the first place. I'm not sure the farmers are permitted to go back to old fashioned (heirloom) seeds. There's a lot of weird stuff going on out there in agriculture land.

We can all thank "representative democracy" for this.

2Wheels · Mar 19, 2011

With climate change, India's water sources are fast drying up. There probably won't be any usable water in India for anyone within a decade or so.

kaitie · Mar 19, 2011

sulong said:
We can all thank "representative democracy" for this.

I blame capitalism and the fact that a lot of people are assholes.

I think Zoombie summed it up best. This sort of thing is pure evil in my book.

Rufus Coppertop · Mar 19, 2011

Don said:
All the governments work together with Monsanto to create this insanity in the first place. I'm not sure the farmers are permitted to go back to old fashioned (heirloom) seeds. There's a lot of weird stuff going on out there in agriculture land.

The farmers need to just go back to heirloom seeds anyway. How did it arise that Monsanto actually has dibs on their lives and doings anyway?

And however it arose, it's up to these people to dedibbify Monsanto from their lives and doings.

And on that note, here's a little something to be optimistic about.

http://www.lightparty.com/Health/IndiaCheers.html

Bartholomew · Mar 19, 2011

Why the quote marks around secretly? If they're to imply that the arrangements aren't really secret, doesn't that make the adverb confusing?

Zoombie · Mar 19, 2011

kaitie said:
I blame capitalism and the fact that a lot of people are assholes.

I blame the lack of real capitalism. This is authoritarianism disguised as a corporate gamble.

Also, it seems to me that the assholes are massively outnumbered by the nice people. I mean, how many people actually RUN these mega-companies?

Rufus Coppertop · Mar 19, 2011

MONSANTO DELENDUS EST!

American mega-companies "secretly" making arrangements to co-opt India's water supplies

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