Key Drivers of Water Grabbing

Further reading on water grabbing from the Transnational Institute website on Water Justice:


What are the key drivers of water grabbing?

Water grabbing is an expression of an economic model of development in which capital accumulation is linked to increasing control over abundant and cheap supplies of natural resources, including food, water and energy. The outbreak in 2008 of a global financial crisis accompanied by extraordinary commodity price spikes and growing financial speculation in food commodities provoked a new round of water, land and resource grabbing as governments and investors sought assurances which could not be provided by increasingly volatile and unreliable markets.4 It is worth examining this nexus between water, energy and food security in a little more detail.

Rising oil prices and growing concerns that a ‘peak oil’ period has been reached have rung alarm bells about the high dependence of modern economies on fossil fuel. The search for alternatives to non-renewable energy sources has focussed extensively on agrofuels: crops such as palm oil, jatropha, sugarcane and soya, grown as a source of liquid fuel for the transport sector and for industrial use. A veritable explosion in agrofuel production has occurred in Asia, Africa and Latin America bolstered by governmental directives, such as the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED), and a broad range of subsidies and preferential loans.5 Claims that agrofuels constitute a clean and efficient energy source have however proven to be highly misleading, not least because of the vast amount of water required throughout the production cycle; from the irrigation of crops, to the washing of the harvest, to the cooling of boilers during processing. In the case of sugarcane cultivation for ethanol production, for example, 7,000 litres of water are needed to produce 12 kilograms of sugarcane, necessary to produce one litre of ethanol.6 This high water intensity of agrofuel production is sometimes overlooked, with disastrous consequences for other water users. (see Box 2)

Just as the growth in fuel crops reflects a search by states and investors for cheap and reliable energy supplies under conditions of competition and economic crisis, a similar logic underpins the appropriation of water resources for the cultivation of food crops. As food prices have spiked in recent years, an increasing number of countries and agribusiness corporations have sought to reduce their dependency on international markets by engaging directly in agricultural production. This has for instance figured prominently in the considera- tions of many Gulf states where their own water resources are stretched and the rising cost of food imports is estimated to account for up to one third of the inflation experienced in the region.7

Appropriating land and water for food production in other countries is therefore seen as a strategy for economic stabilisation and a way to hedge against future inflation. This also holds true for agri-business corporations who have shifted towards greater vertical integration in order to safeguard their profit margins and exercise greater control across the value chain.

Read more at Transnational Institute: Water Justice http://www.tni.org/primer/global-water-grab-primer#whatkey

Corporate Water

Reminder: Don't let corporations tell you that you don't own your water.

Oppose privatization of water in your area!

Melting Ice Could Push Climate To Breaking Point

Last night on Current TV both Jennifer Granholm and Cenk Uygur spent time discussing climate change and the melting of the permafrost. Carrie Mihalcik of Current TV gives background information on what this means for the planet:

By Carrie Mihalcik / current.com / @CDMihalcik

Call it the revolving door of climate change.

Warming temperatures are melting permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere, which, in turn, will release massive amounts of methane and carbon into the atmosphere, which will then significantly amplify global warming.  

The United Nations Environment Programme released a new report about the danger of "permafrost carbon feedback" during the U.N. convention of climate change in Doha, Qatar. UNEP reports that as Arctic and alpine temperatures increase, organic material stored in the frozen ground will begin to thaw and decay, releasing carbon and methane into the atmosphere. The report estimates that permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere contains 1,700 gigatonnes of carbon — twice the amount that is currently in the atmosphere.

"Permafrost is one of the keys to the planet's future because it contains large stores of frozen organic matter that if thawed and released into the atmosphere would amplify current global warming and propel us to a warmer world," said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner.

The report calls for new monitoring and analysis of permafrost feedback by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change because current climate models don’t account for gases released from melting permafrost. This oversight could put long-standing global negotiations on emission limits at risk.

Read more and watch the videos here: http://current.com/groups/news-blog/93974831_melting-ice-could-push-climate-to-the-breaking-point.htm

The Threat of Water Grabbing

One of the areas the Transnational Institute (TNI) works on is Water Justice. With articles on ‘EC, stop imposing privatisation of water!’ and ‘Reclaiming Public Water,’ their website is a great resource for anyone interested in learning more about water issues and the need for advocacy.  

The threat of water grabbing is very real today. Here’s a section from TNI on the subject of water grabbing: 

What is ‘water grabbing’?

Water grabbing refers to situations where powerful actors are able to take control of or divert valuable water resources and watersheds for their own benefit, depriving local communities whose livelihoods often depend on these resources and ecosystems.1 The ability to take control of such resources is linked to processes of privatisation, commodification and take-over of commonly-owned resources. They transform water from a resource openly available to all into a private good whose access must be negotiated and is often based on the ability to pay. Water grabbing thus appears in many different forms, ranging from the extraction of water for large-scale food and fuel crop monocultures, to the damming of rivers for hydroelectricity, to the corporate takeover of public water resources. It also inheres in a model of development which is underwritten by a trade in virtual water.

Water grabbing is not a new phenomenon and has much in common with earlier resource grabs and what has been called the “enclosures of the commons.” 2 The new dimension of contemporary water grabbing is that the mechanisms for appropriating and converting water resources into private goods are much more advanced and increasingly globalised, subject to international laws on foreign investment and trade. There is thus a real concern that a new generation of ‘Mulhollands’, the early 20th Century Los Angeles official who made water grabbing infamous, will profit from this scenario to the detriment of local communities and ecosystems, and at a scale that has not been seen before.(see Box 1) In the context of a ‘global water crisis’, where 700 million people in 43 countries live below the water-stress threshold of 1,700 cubic metres per person, there is an urgent need to put an end to the global water grab.3

Box 1. A New Mulholland? One hundred years ago William Mulholland, superintendent of the Los Angeles Water Department, resolved the city’s water shortage problem through a brutally effective innovation: a ‘water grab’. By forcibly transferring water used by farmers in the Owens Valley, more than 200 miles away, he made it possible for Los Angeles to become one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. Control of water continues to be a source of great dispute in California, although nowadays the battles are mainly fought in courts of law. But across much of the developing world competition over water is intensifying at an alarming rate, giving rise to intense—and sometimes violent—conflict. The danger is that the Mulholland model will resurface in a new guise, with power, rather than a concern for poverty and human development, dictating outcomes. Source: UNDP (2006). Human Development Report 2006 - Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis

Continue reading at Transnational Institute http://www.tni.org/primer/global-water-grab-primer

This article by Jennifer Franco and Sylvia Kay was originally published on http://www.tni.org under a Creative Commons Licence: http://www.tni.org/primer/global-water-grab-primer