|
Water WarsInterview with Vandana ShivaBy Dayna Macy The world's fresh water supply is in trouble -- down 33 percent since 1970 on a per capita basis. If we don't change our ways, says Dr.Vandana Shiva, world-renowned environmental activist and author of Water Wars: Privitization, Pollution, and Profit (South End Press, 2002), by 2025, almost one billion people will live without access to an adequate amount of safe water. Q: How did the current crisis come to be? A: Our entire development and technological models assumed we had limitless water, so we've increased water use way beyond levels of renewability. That leaves the excessive water highly contaminated and unfit for drinking. And, private ownership of water takes it away from those who don't have money. I call it "hydro-apartheid." Q: What do we know about the water crisis? A: You need to know that companies like Suez, Vivendi, and Bechtel are privatizing every city's water supply. They are working with the World Bank and the World Trade Organization to turn water into a commodity. Q: What is the environmental cost of the bottled water industry? A: For every bottle sold to a consumer, ten times as much water is destroyed from where it was mined. That leaves the local community with polluted water or no water at all. Plus, discarded plastic bottles leech dioxins into our groundwater. Q: Industrial agriculture is one of the largest users of our water supply. What can we do to change that? A: Eat food grown close to home, support organic farming, and diversify your diet. "Forgotten foods" like amaranth and millet need little water but can feed millions. Q: What can we do to become more responsible water stewards? A: Stop buying bottled water, don't put clean drinking water down the drain, and urge your city to recycle grey water for household and garden use. We all have equal rights to water, and equal responsibility for protecting it. Q: Has being a mother affected your environmental work? A: There are days where if it wasn't for the fact that I have a child, I wouldn't get up and do many of the things I do. But because I have a child, I have to think about future generations. Q: How do you remain optimistic given the state of our environment? A: I'm deeply optimistic. We are embedded in a very large energy system. There's a much bigger order out there and it is our duty to learn to live in consonance with the planets' rhythms and processes. Just this basic realization teaches us humility and gives us reason to hope. This is the paradox of our time. To be really hopeful one has to be deeply humble. And to be deeply pessimistic you have to be deeply arrogant. We must do all we can to allow our humility to flower. |