Water Portal

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Welcome to the Water Portal on Spinprofiles

Welcome to the Water Portal on Spinprofiles—your guide to networks of power, lobbying and deceptive PR within the water industry.


This water portal will track and profile global and regional governing institutions, lobby associations, policy planning organisations, think tanks and agents all involved in the water industry. It will include those of a pro-privatisatisation persuasion but also those who are promoting an alternative vision orientated towards publicly owned and participatory systems.

Though we are focused on the international context of the Scottish water industry we are keen to widen the scope of the pages and welcome contributions on the EU, the global level and the water situation in other nations.

Spinprofiles has a policy of strict referencing and is overseen by an Managing editor and a Sysop and several Associate Portal editors. The Editors of the Water Portal are Tommy Kane and Kyle Mitchell.

Priority pages on Water



(This is a list of pages that need work - See more...)

Context of the Water Debate


Often taken for granted, water is vital to life. It is the essential component in all aspects and activities related to our well-being and existence - including food and energy production and manufacturing in general. It's clear that if our water supply continues to dwindle, and/or, water became unaffordable, then our lives would be detrimentally transformed. Billions of people are already experiencing and suffering from the mismanagment and unequal allocation of water. Between 1.1 and 1.5 billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation. 2.2 million people die each year due to low quality drinking water and/or lack of sanitation - that is 42,000 people a week, 90 percent of whom are children (WHO/UNICEF:2005). Exclusion to socially necessary goods and services has horrific consequences that are catastrophic, yet entirely preventable.


Access to and control of water have been contentious issues for centuries. Most recently this struggle has taken the form of a conflict over the increasing commercialisatoin, privatisation and liberalisation of fresh water goods and services. This shift in regulation, which has been introduced throughout much of the world by way of neo-liberal policy reform, can be characterised not only by its nature - an inrease in private sector particpation in the water sector and thus a reliance on the free market as the model upon which society structures all forms of social reproduction - but also the geo-political climate within which this shift takes place, namely, the era of economic globalisation.


This shift is indeed facilitated by economic globalisation and carried out by the processes that characterise neoliberal policy reform, including, deregulation, privatisation and liberalisation. These processes, however, have done much more than just facilitate a shift from public to private sector. When it comes to governing resources which hitherto were considered public goods or part of the global commons, neo-liberal policies have changed the nature and structure of governance. The shift in regulatory power has meant a reduction, and in some cases and outright eclipse, in the planning capacity of local, regional and national authorities.


The content and ongoing development of the Water Portal is a reflection of the concerns with the increasing commodification and privatisation of fresh water goods and services. Included within the Water Portal, under the categories section, is a "Water: Concepts" link that serves as a conceptual tool for understanding some of the key concepts and ideas that shape the public/ private water discourse and debate.



Issues

Text needed here

Recent Articles on Water on Alternet

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Categories

There are a list of categories associated with this page:


Recent changes to pages on Water

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References and Resources

Water Articles:

Karen Bakker, Neoliberalizing Nature? Market Environmentalism in Water Supply in England and Wales, Forum on Privatisation and the Public Domain, 2005.

Karen Bakker, Water: commons or commodity? The Forum of Privatisation and the Public Domain, 2003.

Maude Barlow, Our Water Commons – Toward a new fresh water narrative, Council of Canadians, 2008.

Maude Barlow & Tony Clarke, Who Owns Water? The Nation, 2002.

Grusky, Sara & Maj Fiil-Flynn, Will the World Bank Back Down? Water Privatization in a Climate of Global Protest 2004, Public Citizen, 2004.

Friends of the Earth, Privatization: Nature for Sale; The Impacts of Privatizing Water and Biodiversity, Friends of the Earth, 2005.

David Hall & Emanuele, Lobina, Water as a Public Service, PSIRU, 2006.

Erik Swyngedouw, Privatising H20: Turning Local Waters into Global Money, Austrian Journal of Development, 2003.


Water Websites:

Right to Water Launched by the Blue Planet Project, this is an excellent website with an extensive list of water resources.

Blue Planet Project A global initiative working with partners around the world to achieve the goal of water justice.

Council of Canadians Canada’s largest citizen’s organisation which promotes progressive policies in their numerous campaigns including, water, health care, trade, energy, food and peace amongst others.

On the Commons A network of citizens and organisations that champions the cause of the commons on many fronts.


Water Books:

Barlow, Maude (2007), ‘Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water’, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd.

Barlow, Maude, & Clarke, Tony, (2002), ‘Blue Gold: The Battle Against Corporate Theft of the World’s Water’, Toronto: Stoddart Publishing Co. Limited.

Black, Maggie, (2004), ‘The No-nonsense Guide to Water’, Toronto: New Internationalist Publications.

Clarke, Tony, (2005), ‘Inside the Bottle: An Expose of the Bottled Water Industry’, Ottawa: Polaris Institute.

Holland, Sjolander, Ann-Christin, (2005), ‘The Water Business: Corporations Versus People’, Black Point: Fernwood Publishing.

Shiva, Vandana (2002), ‘Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, Profit’, Cambridge Massachusetts: South End Press.

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References
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