| April 24, 2003
Dear Friends,
Come to Bolivia. Visit an Altiplano indigenous Aymara community.
They will welcome you, offer you the community’s only chair,
open a striped ahuayo blanket filled with potatoes meant
for all to share. But if they offer you water, you must not say
“thank you.” Thanking someone for water among the
Aymara is offensive, because it is not theirs to give. Water,
after all, belongs to everyone.
I open with that example a little ironically. We North Americans
are accustomed to thinking of water in Third World countries as
the thing to be avoided at all costs—at least if it’s
not boiled. As a constantly sick North American living in Bolivia,
I am all too familiar with waterborne diseases (I just got over
E. Coli in October). On many occasions I have shared stories with
you about children, like Rebecca, dying from easily treatable
diseases (like diarrhea), which claim the lives of 30,000 children,
daily, worldwide.
The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) attributes the
deaths of 15 million children under the age of five each year
to contaminated water. Many more suffer from stunted intellect
and growth as well as parasites and other problems related to
polluted water. One fifth of the world’s population lacks
access to clean drinking water. That’s over one billion
people whose quality of life is greatly diminshed.
In the Aymara vision of the cosmos, water is a common heritage,
shared by all. But that vision is not unique to their people.
Many indigenous communities around the world consider water vital,
a source of life, with profound spiritual meaning and great responsibility.
But new values are taking precedence over values like reciprocity
and balance, found in indigenous communities worldwide, and in
Christian concepts of abundance and concern for the “other.”
Fresh water, what we call in Bolivia “agua dulce”
(sweet water), accounts for only 2.6 percent of all water on the
planet. It is a source of life for both humans and all other life
forms; without it, we die.
And now, the planet earth is facing a global water crisis. This
crisis not only puts peoples living in the global South, in economically
poor countries like Bolivia, or in water-scarce countries or states
like California, in danger. It also threatens communities and
countries in the wealthy North, in the United States, Canada,
Europe.
Human beings are over-consuming water, diverting water (through
dams and other development schemes), and contaminating water at
an alarming rate. In many parts of the world, people and industries
have turned to precious (and often nonrenewable) groundwater stores.
Industry uses 20-25 percent of the world’s fresh water
supplies, and that figure is increasing. Crop production uses
another 65-70 percent. Massive agro-businesses are top water consumers,
relying on highly inefficient water-delivery systems that lead
to salination and deplete water stores.
While peoples living in the global South (Third World) are often
blamed for over-consumption, statistics point north, to industrialized
nations where water is taken for granted and overused. In fact,
businesses looking to privatize La Paz’s water system ran
into problems when they discovered that Bolivia’s indigenous
communities were too good at conserving water (and therefore would
not bring in good revenues for prospective companies). Many of
my neighbors collect bath water to wash dishes or water their
gardens, are never wasteful, never let the tap drip, and closely
monitor their water use.
Multinational corporations—especially those interested
in the privatization of natural resources—as well as multilateral
economic organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO)
have declared water to be a “human need.” They are
pushing water’s privatization. By declaring water a mere
human need, and not a human right, as many urge, proponents of
water privation can focus on the principles of profit.
In poor countries and poor communities in the United States,
a person’s access to water—something that determines
whether we live or die—is increasingly determined by that
person’s ability to pay. The debate over “need”
or “right” becomes a debate over life and death.
In 1998 the World Bank notified Bolivian officials that a new
series of loans would be dependent upon the privatization of Cochabamba
city’s water system. Aguas del Tunari, a subsidiary of the
U.S.-based Bechtel corporation, won the contract after very little
negotiation.
Those shallow negotiatons later proved to serve local politicians
more than the general Cochabambino population. Water prices jumped
dramatically, and citizens faced having to pay for community wells.
Poor people simply could not pay. For some, their water bill devoured
one quarter of their monthly income.
The people took to the streets, demanding that the business leave
town and that water supplies be turned over to local management,
ensuring its availability, regardless of ability to pay. But it
has been a difficult road for those who took up the fight for
Cochabamba’s water. Bolivia now faces a $25 million suit
from Bechtel for lost potential profits—what they might
have made if they had stayed.
The ability of a business to sue a national or local government
for lost potential profits is part of a trend in multilateral
economic accords like the North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) and the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
Clauses in these economic agreements give companies the power
to sue democratically elected governments that are trying to protect
the rights of their citizens.
For example, many of these economic accords call for the elimination
of “non-tariff trade barriers” like environmental
protection and labor laws. Doing so means removing any barriers
to a company’s profit, such as laws regulating the dumping
of toxic chemicals into rivers.
People living in the United States, like their Bolivian brothers
and sisters, face a future where they may not be able to regulate
industries working in their communities or enforce environmental
or health safety laws.
In 2000, the Canadian Corporation Methanex sued the state of
California after it planned to ban the toxic chemical MTBE (methyl
tertiary butyl ether) from gasoline sold in the state. Studies
had found that MTBE was leaking into ground water supplies from
boats, cars, and gasoline storage tanks.
Methanex brought the suit under Chapter 11 of the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), saying it could lose $970 million
in profits if California banned MTBE. The ban was an effort to
protect California’s citizens from the carcinogenic chemical.
Instead, the case demonstrated the dangers new international economic
accords pose to water resources and public safety.
The Bolivian Joining Hands for Life Network, whose acronym UMAVIDA
comes from the Aymara word, “uma” for water and Spanish
word, “vida” for life, believes that access to plentiful,
clean water is a right for all humans and other living creatures.
The balance of the earth’s ecosystem, the survival of humans
and others species requires that we re-think the value we have
placed on water, and the increasing commodification of “the
commons,” of resources that must be shared.
As Christians, we believe that Jesus came so that we might have
abundant life (John 10:10). And abundant life means both spiritual
and physical abundance for all. Ensuring that all humans have
access to clean and plentiful water, and that the earth’s
ecosystem is protected, requires that we take our role as stewards
of the creation seriously. And being good stewards also may require
changing our lifestyles and our policies to reflect that commitment.
The Bolivian Joining Hands network has commited itself to tackle
these issues. Churches participating in the Joining Hands program
in the Presbytery of San Francisco have also made a commitment.
Both know that water scarcity, contamination, access, and privatization
do not only affect poor countries like Bolivia. These are problems
that will affect us all. Bolivian members of UMAVIDA are developing
plans to raise awareness in their communities. The network is
also discussing how it can get involved in worldwide efforts to
protect water resources.
These are complex issues, and the problems related to the world
water crisis are far more intricate than I can cover here with
any depth. I myself am still learning, in large part because the
UMAVIDA network is challenging me. But there are plenty of resources
out there that explain these issues with greater scientific evidence
and policy analysis.
So what can we do?
- Read! Below I will include some good resources on water issues,
both secular and faith-based.
- Get involved in local efforts to protect water resources.
- Learn about the Biblical basis for our stewardship of the
Creation, and faith-based efforts to heal and protect the Creation.
Visit the Environmental Justice Office of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.): http://www.pcusa.org/environment/
(If you’re not Presbyterian, don’t worry, many of
these resources take a broad theological view).
- Learn about the danger new economic accords like the Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) pose to our ability to legislate
water use, safety, quality, and commodification.
- Many organizations are seeking just, sustainable, and viable
solutions to the world water crisis, addressing individual,
industrial, and agricultural use, as well as policy issues.
But implementing such policies requires a real public and political
will to make changes. And that will requires that we be informed
about what options exist. Learn more.
Check out the following resources for more information on water
issues, faith-based responses to environmental degradation, and
efforts to propose real alternatives:
- Barlow, Maude and Clarke, Tony. Blue Gold. The New
York Press: New York, 2002.
- From the New Yorker, “Leasing the Rain,”
by William Finnegan, deals with the “Water Wars”
in Cochabamba, Bolivia. If you would like a copy, e-mail me
and I will send it along, or visit the New Yorker website.
- Hope for a Global Future: Towards Just and Sustainable Human
Development PDS# OGA 96-031 (PCUSA).
- Daly, Herman E. and John B. Cobb Jr. For the Common Good:
Redirecting the Economy Toward Community the Envrionment, and
a Sustainable Future. 2nd. ed. updated and expanded. Boston.
Beacon Press, 1994.
- Presbyterian Eco-Justice Task Force. Keeping and Healing
the Creation. Social Witness Policy.
Web sites:
Peace!
Susan Ellison
The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page
263 |
