The most interesting article that I read in the May 2007 edition of Vanity Fair was entitled “The Rise of Big Water” by Charles C. Mann. This article was about “Big Water” and how their is some debate over whether water should be controlled by the government or businesses. “Big Water” is a collective term that is used for water companies that take control of city water systems, especially those in poorer parts of the world. This article for the most part focused on China.
Qin Huairen , a Changzhou native, witnessed the transformation of China’s environment. First there was the destruction of forests during THe Great Leap Foreward, then texile factories sprang up in Changzhou and heavily polluted Yangtze River. Qin recalled, “First the fish died and then the water turned dark.” He described the stench as you walked across a bridge over the river as a smell that could “make you choke.” Qin decided that he wanted to do something about the polluted water. Every year from 1985 until 1995 Qin had his middle school students draw water from the canal and do simple water quality tests. It was no surprize that every year the results got worse. Qin sent then sent his results to the government. People in Changzhou were too afraid of drinking this water, so they began to dig their own wells . But, so many wells have been dug that the groundwater has now been overexploited and as a result the local ground level has shrunk two feet.
As a result of that the government outlawed well digging. Qin wanted to serious changes made about the water quality so he created the Changzhou Environmental Education Resource Society which he ran from his middle school classroom. Qin wanted to educate people about the very poor water quality and have them demand change. The government did make a change, but it was not the kind that Qin had expected. In 2005 the government outsourced the job of managing the water supply to Veolia, a French compapny. Qin had expected that the government would have mandated that local factories clean up their wastes more.
”Big Water” can have its advantages as well as disadvantages. Some people believe that Big Water just allows wealthy businessmen to exploit poorer countries by water rate hikes whenever they feel like it. This unfortunatley is sometimes the case, but not always. Some people believe that water is a right and people should never have to pay for it. But either way you view water control something needs to be done and done quickly. Maude Barlow, the national chair of an advocate group in Canada said, “ Every day more children die from dirty water than from HIV/AIDs, malaria, war, accidents all put together.” That is very distrurbing. Water is a basic human right and yet children are dying every day because they do not have access to it.
A Chinese man shovels garbage from a water canal in Beijing, China, Monday, June 13, 2005. China’s booming economic growth is fueling a rapid rise in water pollution that could leave its fast-growing cities without enough clean drinking water, according to a government report released last week. The report said more than 100 of China’s 660 cities face water shortages. (AP Photo)
China, which is home to about 500 million people, is in serious trouble. On a scale from one to five, on which a three is minimally acceptable and a five is a direst health hazard, five of China’s seven main river basins are 4s. About half of China’s municipalities, especially those in urban areas have no waste treatment system, and about one third of China’s population does not have piped water. China is now undertaking the largest water project ever known to man. It is three extremely large 700 mile channels that will send 12 trillion gallons of water a year from the South. To help them with this project China welcomed Big Water. Veolia, the world’s biggest water-service provider, manages the water systems in 17 cities in China.
There are four basic functions of water services: purify the water in a stream, deliver the purified water to homes and bunsinesses, extend and also repair the piping network. Although this may not seem like alot, it is a daunting task. This is a very expensive process for Big Water companies, so they tend to charge high prices for their water services. So the water that people are receiving is now clean, but it can cost sometimes up to one fourth of their montly income. Au Loong Yu, an environmental activist from Hong Kong said, ” I do not have anything against private enterprises, but in countries with no democratic input-either because the state is too weak, or as it is in China, too strong- these companies have become dictators themselves.”
As far as my own opinion over whether outsourcing water control is good or bad thing, I am unsure. On one hand people are gaing access to purified water, but then on the other hand they are sometimes paying large amounts for it. I intend to continue to research this topic and look at other sources to help form my opinion and i’ll blog about it again when I figure it out.
Sources:
“The Rise of Big Water” by Charles C Mann. Vanity Fair May 2007.
image: http://accuweather.ap.org/cgi-bin/apl.pl
