With 71 percent of the Earth’s surface covered by water, you might wonder why there is a crisis. Since saline oceans hold 96.5 percent of the earth’s water, we rely on the small amount that is freshwater to support human, plant, and animal life. A warming planet and booming population make it difficult to keep up with human needs. For an overview, scan these headlines for a glimpse into the future.
Last week’s blog was a preview look at the cover graphic for The Water Factor, a thriller about corporate crime, that will be available for sale in mid-April. Though the novel is a work of fiction, the issues around water are based on fact. Over the next month, I will share the research that inspired me to write this story. Today’s writing provides an overarching view of the problem. Next week, I will discuss what the corporate takeover of water by utility companies and water cartels is doing to communities throughout the world.
TOWNS SELL THEIR PUBLIC WATER SYSTEMS–AND COME TO REGRET IT.
LAKE STATION, Ind. — This hard-luck town just south of Chicago is weighing a decision confronting many small and midsize cities with shrinking populations and chronic budget deficits: whether to sell the public water system to a for-profit corporation. Neglected water infrastructure is a national plague. By one estimate, U.S. water systems need to invest $1 trillion over the next 20 years. In a special meeting, the council voted 5-2 to sell the plant for $20.68 million, the water company’s original offer. Elizabeth Douglass (2017) Washington Post and Carole Carlson Chicago Tribune.
Mexico City’s long-running water problems are getting even worse. Climate change and mismanagement have exacerbated the inequalities between those who have access to water and those who don’t. Authorities are warning of major water shortages across huge swaths of Mexico City until the rainy season begins in June and refills the reservoirs. Emily Green (2023 )NPR
Lawsuits Mount for Nevada-based Real Water, amid FDA probe. Lawsuits are mounting against a Las Vegas-based bottled water brand, Real Water, amid a U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation and accusations by more people in more states that it caused liver illness and other ailments. KEN RITTER (2021) Associated Press
PFAS Water Utility Lawsuit Shows An Increasing Trend. In the latest lawsuit, the Pennsylvania-American Water Co. (“PAWC”) sued numerous PFAS manufacturers over allegations that the companies knowingly or negligently allowed the contamination of Pennsylvania’s drinking water. (2021) CMBG, LAW
Drug cartels stealing millions of gallons of water for marijuana grows in Antelope Valley. Drug cartels have been stealing 2-3 million gallons of water a day to feed illegal marijuana grows in the Antelope Valley, officials said. Asked where the water was being stolen from, Rep. Mike Garcia, who represents the state’s 25th District, said: “Right here from our local aqueduct system. The California Aqueduct flows right through the Antelope Valley. They’re taking it out of wells. They’re stealing it from fire hydrants.” Leo Stallworth (2021)ABC Eyewitness News
IS WATER THE NEW DRUG FOR MEXICO’S CARTELS. What it’s like when narcos run your privatized water system. Tamara Pearson(2013) New Internationalist.
Kenya: Nairobi’s Water Cartel Woes. The urbanization of Nairobi has significantly strained its water infrastructure and the supply of water to the city. That strain has raised concerns about the cleanliness of the water and the issue of water cartels tapping into the water mains.Poorly maintained pipelines and the growing concern about the activities of water cartels call for multilateral action. Christopher Crellin (2018) Global Food and Water Crisis Research.
Global Water Crisis: Facts, FAQS, and How to Help. Water, the essence of life on earth, is a vital resource. Yet, a global water crisis continues to challenge people’s access to the quantity and quality needed for drinking, cooking, bathing, handwashing, and growing food. Sevil Ober (2024) World Vision.
Water Shortages Destabilize Ethiopia and Wider Region: A major food crisis triggered by drought and conflict is affecting more than 20 million people in East Africa.”The drought in eastern and south-eastern Ethiopia mostly affects pastoral people who are forced by water shortages to move their livestock, such as cows and sheep, elsewhere, creating tension between villagers who, overnight, have to share the same pasture land and water points,” Fabrice Vandeputte, (2023) Handicap International’s programs in Ethiopia.
U.S. TRIBAL NATIONS DEAL WITH A LEGACY OF POOR DRINKING WATER: Warm Springs: The community’s four-decades-old water treatment plant has been plagued with problems. In 2019, a boil-water notice continued for three months in some parts of the reservation. The community has, at times, been forced into communal showers. It hasn’t always been clear that enough water is available to fight fires. Scholars say access to safe drinking water and reliable sanitation is a problem for nearly half of Indigenous people in the U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has dedicated billions of dollars from its massive infrastructure spending to improve water and sewage services for tribal nations. (2024) Deschutes River Conservancy.
Water and Agriculture. An interview with John DeVoe: “Eighty percent of our water goes to agriculture. You have to understand there is no charge for water itself in the transfer of the right to use it (a public resource) from the states in the West to agriculture. Agriculture does not pay for it. It’s not that they pay “a little” or a “small amount”, they do not pay for it. Not their irrigation districts (corporations) and not individual farmers. It is free to them. There’s no need to focus on far-away corporate control and “what ifs” when the real corporate control is right here, right now – within irrigation districts, reclamation projects, utilities, and so on. The corporate control horse – at least in the American West – has already left the barn.” John DeVoe (2019) WaterWatch of Oregon.
Keep Nestlé Out of the Gorge. Upon learning of Nestlé’s attempted water grab, conservation and public interest groups formed a coalition to raise awareness and opposition to the proposal. They created a blueprint for protecting local water.The plan would have given Nestlé a fifty-year guarantee of access to 118 million gallons of water annually from state-owned Oxbow Spring, which it would transform into hundreds of millions of bottles of Arrowhead brand water to be sold across the Northwest. Cascade Locks city officials, two Oregon governors, and the state fish and wildlife agency all lined up behind the proposal, continuing to back it throughout the long approval process. Yet nearly a decade later, in October 2017, the plan was officially dead. Jaffee, D. (2024) Columbia INSIGHT.
The Water Factor will be online and in bookstores by mid-April.
I look forward to your comments below.