As one steps back and reflects on some of the things we take for granted, water would surely be high on the list. Most of us don’t think twice about the luxury of taking showers, doing laundry, watering plants, cooking, using the dishwasher, filling the kiddie pool…and many of us have become part of the “carry-my-bottled-water-with-me-wherever I go” culture. Selling water is a multi-million dollar industry. The privatization of water has a ripple effect throughout the world. Take a minute to think about what you might do to conserve water in your own life, and by cultivating this consciousness, remember the people and places throughout the world that have little or no access to clean water. Conserve as a means of solidarity with the world’s poor.
See Powerpoint on water - by Marian Hamway
The following was received from Sister Faith:
Advocacy Alert from Seton Federation NGO
for the
Daughters of Charity-Northeast Province
August 2006
Office of Social Justice
Dear Sisters,
Find information for August Action from the Elizabeth Seton Federation.
Background:
Beginning in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s almost all of the World Bank’s water lending projects have been conditional on some form of privatization, while little attention has been paid to enhancing the public sector. Bank loans to developing countries for infrastructure decreased by 50% while its investments in other sectors had increased, and the role of its financial institutions for enhancing private sector development practically doubled. Huge and well-publicized water privatization projects were funded by the Bank throughout the 1990s.
Several of these projects failed and the private transnational companies withdrew from their water utility investments in developing countries. There are three main reasons for this: 1) the increasing number of high profile cancellations, signaling instability in the market; 2) reduction in investment interests, as investments in increasing access to the poor have proven to be less than lucrative; and, 3) an extreme shift in public opinion towards the supposed benefits of privatization after facing unsustainable water tariff increases and variable degrees of service.
Find printed post card. Please sign your name and Daughters of Charity. Thank you on behalf of those without access to water. (Advocacy Office: DC-Faith@att.net)
Address Post Card:
Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, President
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
