How about privitization of public water works?

[lonestarnot]

Bottled water drinkers could be threatening public water works as Pepsico and other large bottled water providers druel over privitization of public water works may become a reality. It is cheaper to install your on filtration system at home, yes even for apartment dwellers, than it is to buy those damn bottles and toss them into the landfill to decay for centuries.

ENVIRONMENT-HEALTH: Water - Bottles Versus Faucets
Stephen Leahy
BROOKLIN, Canada - Four large corporations control much of the world's booming bottled water industry and pose a threat to public water utilities, according to a report by the Canadian non-governmental Polaris Institute.

http://ipsnews.net/new_nota.asp?idnews=27844

[Divernan]

1. Bottled water diverts attention from demanding improvements to public H2O

As the article points out, people (20% in US) are spending money to buy bottled water instead of demanding that public water supplies be improved.

[lonestarnot]

2. Thanks for reading....this is the most important piece of the article! n/t

[izzie]

3. This business will make the oil war look meek and it has started

Do not let the water works out of the peoples hands. My kids think I am crazy on this subject but look at the people in the world that have to live on a half gal. of water a day and see what your life would be like if you end up turning the water over to a Corp. that makes a profit. It would be madness.

[ret5hd]

4. just point to enrons ventures into the water market in south america.

[lonestarnot]

5. Do you have some links? n/t

[dweller]

6. early on in the Enron debacle

an article was written about other Enron schemes in the works. One was to buy up and privatize the world's water.
I had the article saved, along with many others that have lost due to computer hd crash. But it was out there at one time.

i'll see if i can run it down.
dp

edit: http://www.citizen.org/documents/LiquidAssets.pdf.
http://www.polizeros.com/stories/2002/08/12/water.html
www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13664

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Privatised water companies suck

We have to endure them in England and Wales, thanks to the Tories in the early 90s (not that Blair would contemplate renationalising them for a moment, of course). Since they have a natural monopoly on tap water, their prices are regulated; but we still end up having to pay extra for their profits. And of course there's no 'competition' benefit to the consumers. Just constant attempts at cutting costs (and corners) by the water companies.

Is the following a simple mistake by the reporter (and/or translator, since the article originally appeared in Latin American newspapers), or a real indication of who runs the FDA?

Bottled water is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, says Stephen Kay, spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association.
...
But FDA spokesman Kay said "deposit systems are expensive to operate and burden the retailer with having to store all those empty bottles," while curbside recycling programmes are better and easier for consumers.

[lonestarnot]

9. LOL don't know about the mistake or truth, but King may be a better last

name!

[ramapo]

8. Read "Water Wars"

This book has an extensive look at the privatization of water utilities as well as the other major problems surrounding water supplies here and abroad. on edit: The author is Vandana Shiva.

[lonestarnot]

10. Thank you will check it out! n/t

[DiverDave]

11. Our water is from a private co.

and it SUCKS...algae in the toilet...a funky scum buildup on the shower head...and a rate increase, maybe. (they are crying poverty)
So this is SAVING me MONEY??!!
Privatization of utility's does not benefit consumers.

[MisterP]

13. THEY know that, but they spew rhetoric to hide it, or just never

report it when it happens

[applegrove]

12. Some of the biggest & longest wars in the world are over water.

Some say even the Palestinian/Israel war is mostly about water.

[NNN0LHI]

14. I'm not a know it all. Found this yesterday. Glass bottle = 1 million years

An average California household throws away over 34 pounds of plastic water and soda bottles each year.

Every 90 days a recycled aluminum can makes its way back on the shelf as something useful.

80-100 years - that's the lifespan of an aluminum can that gets tossed into the trash instead of a recycling bin.

700 years - that's how long a trashed plastic bottle will sit in a landfill taking up space and refusing to degrade.

1 Million Years - Put a glass bottle in a landfill and that's how long it'll sit there doing nothing. Recycle it and it can live forever.

[lonestarnot]

15. I would sure hate to have a Ken Lay (sp?)type telling me how much water I

could use or not use.