Brussels, 07/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - Water, vital to life and a fundamental right for all, or a rare commodity reserved to the affluent? The legitimacy of this question was highlighted on Wednesday at the opening of the P7 -the summit of the world's seven poorest nations- organised at the initiative of the Greens in the European Parliament to study a global water policy in which the developing nations would not be rejects (see yesterday's EUROPE, page 16).
A fourth of the world's population does not have access to water, stated Riccardo Petrella, denouncing the damaging effects of the privatisation of a public good. The omnipotence of Lyonnaise des Eaux (expected to provide water to 1 billion 650 million people by the year 2015, as against 100 million at present) is a perfect illustration of this "confiscation of water" taking place on the basis of an emerging global power, resulting from a lack of democracy and the absence of a world water authority establishing clear rules. For Mrs Vandana Shiva, Honorary President of the P7 (India - Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology), the worsening of the water crisis is both ecological and political in origin, and the World Bank has played a big role therein. The model of industrial agriculture financed by the world Bank has led to water crises, notably due to the replacement of indigenous, drought-resistant crops with seeds that flourish only with the use of considerable fertiliser and which consume three to four times as much water. Belgian MEP Paul Lannoye, Co-Chair of the Greens/ALE group, said the increasingly frequent use of "aggressive water exploitation technologies by major companies" is sufficient evidence of the necessity of changing European water policy and modifying in framework legislation the "market approach to water". Mrs Mourad, representative of the Palestinian Authority, highlighted the social and political stakes of water for the Palestinians, "prevented by the Israelis from digging new wells" even though their water resources are very limited (their average consumption is 50 litres of water a day, as opposed to 300 for the Israelis).