Summary for Wednesday April 7

According to the taste test from Monday… Well water was the “least favorite” and water from the fountain water in the science center was the “favorite”.

Today in lecture, we discussed filtration processes behind different tap water sources, possible contaminants in water and how these contaminants are regulated. Drink wisely.

New York City has the largest drinking-water system in the country, providing NYC with the “most delectable water in the civilized world” from its upstate surface water reservoirs. The EPA doesn’t even require NYC to filter their water because it of such good quality and the watershed is so well protected. NYC has over 2,000 sq. mi. of watersheds, 19 reservoirs, 3 controlled lakes and 965 monitoring stations, which are checked 7 days/week for: microorganisms, harmful chemicals.

Kansas City receives water from the end of a river system, with no control over watershed—resulting in “chocolate Yoo-Hoo” water. Yet, Kansas City does a really great job cleaning its water:

1. Add Ferric Sulfate and a cationic polymer (neutralizes sediment electrical charge)

2. Add Potassium Permanganate (counteract bad tastes and smells)

3. Add Chloramine (soften water, raise pH)

4. Softening basin where organics and chemicals combine to form “floaties” of viruses and bacteria

5. CO₂ added to absorb Atrazine (harmful contaminant common in KC water)

6. Add Fluoride and send to filter gallery for distribution

Water can be contaminated with atrazine and excess nutrients from fertilizers used for farming. The production of ethanol can result in water with high sulfide, chloride, and iron concentrations. Also, arsenic and perchlorate have become growing threats to safe American drinking water. According to the Environmental Working Group, other unregulated contaminants found in tap water from 42 states do not have safety standards, but have known health effects.

Domestic plumbing issues include: outdated infrastructure (lead solders) and the accumulation of biofilms in water storage tanks, resulting in bacterial colonies.
Public plumbing issues include: 250,000- 300,000 water mains break per year, flooding can contaminate water systems and giant sinkholes from antiquated cast-iron mains.

Bottled water is popular. In 2006, Americans bought nearly $11 billion worth of bottled water, but as sales grow, so does the criticism of bottled water. 17 million barrels of oil per year are used to make US water bottles, which is equivalent to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year. In 2007, Poland Springs alone burned almost a million gallons of diesel fuel. If you add in the transport of 1 billion bottles per week and the energy needed to fill, chill, and dispose—the whole process is equivalent to filling each bottle produced ¼ full of oil.

The EPA monitors tap water:

-Allows certain levels of contaminants
-Required annual reports informing of contaminant presence
-Disinfects and tests for cryptogiardia and viruses
-Tests tap water constantly throughout the year, reports results

The FDA monitors bottled water:

-Allows same levels of contaminants
-Not required disclose contaminant information
-Do not need to test for cryptogiardia and viruses because it comes from “clean” sources
-Bottling plants self-test and can be inspected as rarely as once every 5-10 years

Third Option: Filtered water. Water filters contain charcoal and reduce certain chemicals (chlorine, lead), but do not remove pharmaceuticals or perchlorate. The disposal process of filters can be harmful to the environment because most people don’t return them to filtering companies to be recycled, so filters end up in landfills.

Bottled water is not all bad? The International Bottled Water Association argues that water is a healthy alternative to soda and juice and that bottled water uses just 0.02% of world’s groundwater. Bottled water is also an “Emergency Card” because when tap water isn’t an option, bottled water is the safest fallback.

Reading Assignments for today were:
China is facing widespread water pollution due to industrialization, economic growth, urbanization, and inadequate investment in water infrastructure. Only 5% of municipal wastewater and 17% of industrial discharge is treated, meaning 700 million people are drinking contaminated water.

Charleston, WV has severely contaminated tap water. About 1 in 10 Americans have been exposed to dangerously contaminated drinking water, but less than 3% of water violations are actually punished.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13water.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2

Slides shown in lecture today are available as a .pdf on Sakai.

The my maps page has been updated with the locations mentioned in today's lecture.

For our final reading assignment of the term , please read 'How Bad For The Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be?' 30 Million People Wonder and EPA Didn't Know Anybody Was Still Drinking Water, both from The Onion. If you are unfamiliar with The Onion, ask one of your classmates about it...

Bottlemania Homework Assignment

Over the last several decades drinking “fine waters” has become an emerging fad in elitist societies. For whatever the reason, people are paying up to several thousand dollars of water for a single bottle of water. After water has been filtered so many times and come from the most “natural” source, there has to be some other factors that differentiate one water company from the rest.

1.) Go to http://www.finewaters.com/Bottled_Water/index.asp and find the water that has been assigned to you. The water companies are separated by countries--click on the appropriate one.

CEB- Voss Water (Norway)
ACB- Equa (Brazil)
BAB- Aquadeco (Canada)
ASB- Island Ice (Australia)
CMCar- Aqua Pacific (Fiji)
CMC- Gota (Argentina)
GCA- Antipodes (New Zealand)
JBH- Te Waihou (New Zealand)
TJ- Hawaiian Springs (USA)
EAM- Berg (Canada)
DKM- Jana (Croatia)
TMM- Cape Grim (Australia)
JAP- Saint Geron (France)
TCR- Mondariz (Spain)
GSR- Tasmanian Rain (Australia)
RGS- Swiss Mountain (Switzerland)
VCS- Kona Deep (USA)
JWS- Bling H20 (USA)
CIS- Le Bleu (USA)
EAV- New York Springs (USA)
CV- Penguin Ice (Canada)
CMB- Walnut Grove (USA)
KAB- Iskilde (Denmark)
ACC- Peteroa 9500 (Chile)
JSD- Lelu (Micronesia)
DLG- Isbre (Norway)
SVG- DeVine (USA)
AMK- Malmberg (Sweden)
EGL- Icelandic Glacial (Iceland)
TSM- Himalayan Natural Spring (Nepal)—Google for web site
BGM- Vilas Del Turbon (Spain)
SMP- Karoo (South Africa)
CCR- Veen (Finland)
MARS- SoH20 (New Zealand)
RHR- Summit Spring (USA)
RBS- Sole (Italy)
CS- Cave H20 (Germany)
AHS- Blue Republic (South Africa)
MW- Etrusca (Italy)
ESY- Swisseau (Switzerland)

2.) View Fine Waters review of your bottled water company and then go to the company’s website.

3.) Answer the following questions in a word document and e-mail to Professor Low with Bottled Water Homework as the subject heading. You should be able to answer the majority of these questions from the company's website, but feel free to use google to find the answers you not listed on the site.

1.) Describe the source of the water? Is the water treated and how?

2.) What is their slogan? What is their hook/what are they selling? is it expensive, does it come from an unusually pristine environment? who drinks it?

3.) What is the virginality^TM of the water?

3.) What percentage of the people in the country had access to an improved water source in 2004?

4.) What is the minimum to maximum price range per 1-liter bottle cost?

5.) How many liters per year do they sell?

6.) How large is their company (in $)?

7.) Can you find any complaints by the local community about the company?

8.) Do they have a sustainability statement or use any other green-washing techniques? What are they?

9.) If you can find it, how much money do they spend on marketing?

10.) What is special about their water from taste to health benefits?

11.) Do they make outrageous claims about the taste or health or who recommends it?

12.) Use the information that you have gathered from the company website to write a 3 sentence promotional statement that would encourage someone to buy your specific brand of water?

13.) Describe the artistry inherent in the design of the bottle (if there isn’t a high level—just say it)

14.) Attach a picture of the bottle.

Summary for Monday April 5th

Today we discussed the first few chapters of Elizabeth Royte’s book, “Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It.” Discussing the history of bottled water and current trends in the industry, we gave a brief outline of the basics of the beginning of Royte’s book.

1. The History of Bottled Water

a. Royte emphasizes the fact that “the tap is alien to today’s youth.” Bottled water today is everywhere and everyone appears to be drinking it by the gallon. In fact, US sales of bottled water were 10.8 billion in 2006, a figure that surpasses both sales of beer and milk. Royte predicts soda will be next by 2011.

b. Water diversion has been occurring since the Roman times. By the 1700s water became popular for recreational and supposed medicinal purposes.

c. Royte traces the concept of “water chic” back to Perrier. Working with the British knight Sir Saint-John Harmsworth, Dr. Louis Perrier developed the water into an iconic brand at the end of the 1800s. Harmsworth started marketing the water as chic to British consumers, who appropriate the water as a status symbol. With the invention of the iconic green bottle, Perrier became a marketing wonder and starts the worldwide bottled water market.

2. Bottled water has become a status symbol/ fashion accessory/ and huge money maker

a. Bottled water is also a huge money maker for restaurants. It has the highest markup price of any item on a restaurant menu, and the restaurant industry makes between $200 and $250 million per year on bottled water sales alone.

3. Water Branding

a. In actuality, 44% of bottled water comes from municipal sources (25% according to the NRDC.

b. A new type of sustainable (bottled) water is emerging from Singapore: NEWater. This is reused wastewater. The popularity of this brand is yet to be seen. The success of this brand depends on excellent PR and marketing strategy.

4. The genius of the bottled water industry lies in its PR and marketing teams.

The discussion was then moved to specifically discuss a current water war in Fryeburg, Maine which Royte continuously refers back to in her book.

1. Fryeburg, Maine and the Ward’s Brook Aquifer

a. The Ward’s Brook Aquifer near Fryeburg, Maine can hold 8 billion gallons of water. Town and two commercial extractors pump out approximately 800,000 gallons per day from this aquifer.

b. Royte tells the story of Howard Dearborn, a local man who lives on Lovewell Pond, who accuses Poland Spring (a part of the Nestle corporation) of disrupting the ecosystem of the pond and of reducing the health of the pond. Because so much water is being extracted from the aquifer, there is a reduced amount of water flowing into the pond and this negatively affects the habitat. Hiring a hydrogeologist for his own investigative purposes as well as using his own well as an example, Dearborn crafts an argument against Poland Spring.

c. Local environmental costs are hard to define.

d. Nestle spends a lot of money hiring hydrogeologists to determine how much water can be used for spring water in the area. However, much of their research is based on computer modeling, which has its definite flaws. Nestle also has the money to hire hydrogeologists who will say whatever Nestle tells them to, causing Royte to refer to such hydrogeologists as “hydrostitutes.”

2. The Fryeburg Water Company was started in 1883 to supply the town with spring water. In 1995, the water infrastructure had to be updated and the discovery of the size of the Ward’s Brook aquifer led the heard of the water company to start making money off the aquifer. Starting the dummy company “Pure Mountain Spring,” the owners of the company began selling water to Poland Spring at incredibly high rates.

3. A number of ethical questions are raised: is it right to take a public resource and sell it? What does Nestle leave for the community? Et cetera…

4. Royte uses the situation in Fryeburg as a small example of a worldwide issue. Although the local community of Fryeburg was able to take measures against Nestle, it is still a David versus Goliath story. The privatization of water becomes a democratic issue and Royte insists we need to use stories such as the fight between Fryeburg and Nestle as an example of how large corporations can take advantage of local resources.

5. Royte emphasizes the fact that we need to resume drinking tap water!

We concluded with a small discussion of the assigned reading by Noel Gallagher, “Challenges Piling Up for Poland Spring.” This article reviewed a Maine state law enacted in 2007 which requires a more public review of extraction permit applications, regulates the impact of commercial extraction on the watershed, sets sustainability standards, and starts a new watershed and drinking water management program.

Also included in our presentation was a taste test of various bottled waters, tap water, spring water, and well water. Preliminary conclusions indicate that people notice very little difference between the two. Furthermore, FIJI water was specifically discussed. FIJI water is actually from Fiji, but this presents a sad reality that this expensive water is being extracted from a country with only a 48% rate of access to water sources. To see an example of “green washing” done by this company, just look at www.fijigreen.com.

Slides shown in lecture today are available as a .pdf on Sakai.

The my maps page has been updated with the locations mentioned in today's lecture.

Please read Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering by Charles Duhigg and Water Pollution and Human Health in China by Wu et al.. for Wednesday.

Summary for Wednesday March 31

Below is a summary of today's lecture provided by Annie K with a few italicized additions and hyperlinks from Prof. Low...

The first topic today was a recap of the reading assignment “Global Water Shortage Looms in New Century.” From here we moved back into Blue Covenant, focusing primarily on chapter 5.

Throughout her book, Barlow argues that water is becoming a growing source of conflict. Some examples given are the Colorado River in the U.S., cloud seeding in China, violent defense of water in Java, domestic violence in Kenya, air strikes on rebels trying to divert water in Sri Lanka, capital punishment for those who contaminate water in Malaysia, and many deaths in Nepal, Bangladesh, Sudan and elsewhere. There are also many conflicts between countries over water resources.
Another issue we looked at was water refugees. BY 2050, 1.7 billion people will live in dire “water poverty” and be forced to relocate. Water is becoming a security issue. Homeland Security is now responsible for protecting our water from terrorism at a price of $548 million a year. Further exacerbating water conflict is the issue of water privatization.
There are three major crises affecting access to water in the world today:

1. Dwindling freshwater supplies

2.Inequitable access to water

3. Corporate control of water is worsening these issues

Barlow does not believe that technology will solve these problems and that we shouldn’t place ourselves too far ahead of nature. She has a great disdain for unrestrained growth. Her three purposed solutions are:

1. Water conservation: a pact between the people and government guaranteeing the right to clean water and implementing practices that will ensure this.

a. This is an alternative to the dwindling water supply

b. We have plenty of workable examples to build from, but we lack the political motivation.

c. Existence of water depends on sustainable management of water

d. We must implement watershed restoration and proper land use

e. Development of green conservation zones in urban development (i.e. Central Park)

f. We need to mitigate chemical farming, the use of pesticides, etc. This will take grass roots, localized movements – keep food local

Here we looked briefly at the results from our water footprint homework: Students are slightly below the national average. This could be because we do not own lawns, wash our cars, etc. The second and third solutions were then presented:

2. Water Justice: a pact between governments of the global north and global south to work on solidarity and equal access to water.

3. Addresses inequitable access to water

-62 countries are heavily burdened by debt and this is hindering their development

-There needs to be substantial allowances for debts, forgiving debt and increasing foreign aid. According to Barlow, the level of aid should be .7% of GDP of giving country – the U.S. now gives only .17%

-Need to address gender inequality – keep policies local and help indigenous peoples

-Water Democracy: pact between all governments and all people guaranteeing fundamental human right of access to clean water

Alternative to corporate control of water:

Working examples are Public Services International, which provides alternatives to private water schemes and PUPs, which supports public water services

Some further examples of solutions were Acequia, an ancient Spanish ditch irrigation system and the International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance.

The presentation concluded that there is a need for a binding law, which would ensure both accountability and visibility. It is essential that we develop and maintain sustainable management and conservation. With these in mind, Barlow proposes a covenant that would entail an obligation to respect and action in the interest of citizens before the state, an obligation to protect, a responsibility to keep out third parties threatening the human right to water, and an obligation to fulfill, forcing governments to take on any additional measures to ensure this right.
The impediments to this covenant exist in water corporations, the northern countries, the World Bank, Green Cross International, and market-based globalization. According to Barlow, if we can assert the primacy of human rights, the need to distribute water publicly and without discrimination and promote water rights efforts on a national level, then we can overcome the problems of water conservation and distribution.

Slides shown in lecture today are available as a .pdf on Sakai.

There will be no reading assignment for Friday.

Blue Covenant Homework

1. Go to the resources page on Sakai and download the excel spreadsheet BCData.xls. This spreadsheet contains data from EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal and CIA The World Factbook.

2. You will be using this data to make three plots; the homework assignment will consist of these three plots, your interpretation of these plots, and some additional questions about the nature of the data. You will be looking at four sets of numbers for about 150 different countries.

a. Per Capita Actual Renewable Water Resources
b. % Access to an improved water source in 2004
c. % Access to improved sanitation in 2004
d. per capita gdp

3. Click on "Actual Renewable Water Resources: Per capita" at EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal, select "...or retrieve all data for this variable." and click on "View Technical Notes". Succinctly describe in your own words what is it that "Actual Renewable Water Resources: Per capita" measures.

4. Click on "Water and Sanitation: Access to an improved water source" at EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal, select "...or retrieve all data for this variable." and click on "View Technical Notes". Succinctly describe in your own words what is it that "Access to an improved water source" measures.

5. Click on "Water and Sanitation: Access to improved sanitation" at EarthTrends: The Environmental Information Portal, select "...or retrieve all data for this variable." and click on "View Technical Notes". Succinctly describe in your own words what is it that "Access to improved sanitation" measures.

6. Use the power of the internet to find a definition for per capita GDP. Succinctly describe in your own words what is it that per capita GDP measures.

7. Plot 1: in excel, plot % Access to improved water source in 2004 (y-axis) as a function of 2006 & 2007 average Per Capita Actual Renewable Water Resources (Cubic meters (m^3) per person per year) normalized to % of world average (x-axis)(highlight your two columns of interest and "insert" an (xy) scatter (plot) with only markers). Modify the x-axis so that it is logarithmic (right-click on one of the numbers on the axis, select "format axis" and then click the box next to "Logarithmic Scale"). Print out the graph, label the axis, and succinctly describe any trends that are evident in the data; specifically, how do any observed trends compare with any trends that you might have predicted?

8. Plot 2: in excel, plot % Access to improved water source in 2004 (y-axis) as a function of per capita gdp as % of world average (x-axis)(highlight your two columns of interest and "insert" an (xy) scatter (plot) with only markers). Modify the x-axis so that it is logarithmic (right-click on one of the numbers on the axis, select "format axis" and then click the box next to "Logarithmic Scale"). Print out the graph, label the axis, and succinctly describe any trends that are evident in the data; specifically, how do any trends compare with any trends that you might have predicted?

9. Plot 3: in excel, plot % Access to improved sanitation in 2004 (y-axis) as a function of per capita gdp as % of world average (x-axis) (highlight your two columns of interest and "insert" an (xy) scatter (plot) with only markers). Modify the x-axis so that it is logarithmic (right-click on one of the numbers on the axis, select "format axis" and then click the box next to "Logarithmic Scale"). Print out the graph, label the axis, and succinctly describe any trends that are evident in the data; specifically, how do any trends compare with the trends from Plot 2?

10. Sort the data by “% Access to an improved water source in 2004”. When you look through the list of data, is there any general inference to be made about the different regions of the world? That is, do some regions’ countries tend to belong in one end of the spectrum, or in the middle? The regions are: Europe, The Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America, Oceania and North America.

11. This homework assignment is is due Friday, April 2 at the beginning of class as a printed hard copy.

Summary for Monday March 29th

Below is a summary of today's lecture provided by Morton and Maya with a few italicized additions and hyperlinks from Prof. Low...

First lecture of The Blue Covenant, by Maude Barlow.

The overuse of water is rapidly decreasing some of the largest aquifers in the world. There are two main types of aquifers – superficial ones which are recharged continuously, and fossil aquifers which are not. The Ogallala aquifer which supplies water to more than one third of American crop irrigation was formed in the last ice age. It is emptied at an alarming rate, and it is not being recharged.

One issue with emptying groundwater reservoirs arises when the void left behind when the water is extracted cannot carry the weight of the ground above, causing the ground to collapse. This leaves large craters behind on the surface. This has happened in several places around the Aral Sea for example (and the video example of extreme water depletion and catastrophic subsidence in South-central Turkey). The Aral Sea is also an example of overuse, since the irresponsible extraction of water from its tributaries lead the lake to shrink to a fraction of its size (10% of what it used to be), leaving formerly vibrant fishing communities stuck in the middle of what is rapidly becoming a desert. What is left of the lake is so saline (21,000 ppm or over 10 times what we decided was drinkable) that most life in it disappeared, since most species are unable to adjust to such an extreme change in environment over only a few decades. In other places, such as Arizona, Northern China and elsewhere, water issues arise because people inhabit arid lands, which cannot support the populations without importing large quantities of water.

Two fifths of the world’s population does not have reliable access to clean water. The WHO estimates that 80% of all illnesses are caused by bad drinking water. In fact, more children die because of water-related issues than any other cause of death for children. This trend is exacerbated by global warming, which is causing increased rates of glacial melt; incidentally, a large quantity of water bodies in the developing world depends on glacial melt. The World Bank, which is the largest developmental aid agency in the world, prefers privatization to deal with water scarcity. However, as Maude Barlow notes, there could be a number of issues with this approach – mainly that for profit companies have a lesser tendency to keep in mind the greater good of the people, which leads to sub-optimal supply. One such example is Cochabamba in Bolivia, but these issues are commonplace all around the world.

Slides shown in lecture today are available as a .pdf on Sakai.

Claire's speaker's notes are available below.

The my maps page has been updated with the locations mentioned in today's lecture.

The reading for Wednesday will be: Global Water Shortage Looms In New Century

Privatization of water lecture notes from Claire

Privatization of water

- One of the major issues Barlow discusses in Blue Covenant: privatization, or the corporate control of water.

- Barlow opens her analysis with the following explanation:
“Water, of course, has traditionally been viewed as a public resource. Increasingly, however, freshwater supplies are being privatized in a whole range of ways as a powerful water industry moves to create a cartel resembling the one that now controls every facet of energy, from exploration and production to distribution.”

- It is important to recognize that water has traditionally been viewed as a public resource, and that it wasn’t until about 30 years ago that freshwater supplies began to be privatized and water became viewed as a commodity.

- Barlow stresses that the private sector understands that, in a world running out of clean water, whoever controls that water will be both wealthy and powerful.

- Private, for-profit organizations in countries around the world provide various services and have a multitude of functions, including:

- Municipal services
- Put massive amounts of freshwater in bottles for sale
- Control water used for industrial farming, mining, energy production, computers, cars and other water intensive industries
- Own and operated dams, pipelines, nanotechnology
- Water purification systems and desalination plants
- Overall technological infrastructure
- Control water trade and buy water rights (groundwater and watersheds)

- Other than France, which, since the late 1800s has encouraged the existence of a private water industry, the “Global North” (that’s Europe, North America, Australia, and Japan) has adopted universal public water and sanitation services to protect public health and to promote national economic development.

- With foundations built on a colonial legacy, the “Global South” (consisting of Africa, Asia, and South and Central America) mainly has urban water services only for the elite, with millions of poor urban dwellers having no access to water or sanitation, an issue that has been exacerbated in the past 30 years.

This begs the question…

Q: Why is privatization occurring in so many 3rd world countries?

A: The answer is three-fold:

1) Residents of third-world countries are moving from rural areas to megacities.

2) As population density increases, pollution in surface water also increases.

3) Third-world governments, which are plagued by poverty and consistently increasing debt, cannot meet demands for fresh water.

- By the end of the 1980s, a public model (like that of the “Global North”) for developing nations had been abandoned in favor of a private model that would benefit the private water companies of Europe.

- Barlow says that this was not at all coincidental, but was rather planned and intentionally carried out by some of the most powerful forces in the world.

- She traces this shift from a public to a private model of water services to ideology manifested under Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, in which liberal market economics constituted the one and only choice for the whole world, including the developing world.

- Soon, this Washington Consensus became the guiding mantra for the elite running the global institutions involved in water development, including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and even the United Nations.

- Although privatization had failed in England under Thatcher, this model (and not the far more successful model of public delivery) was exported to the developing countries of the “Global South.”

The World Bank

-The World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries. First world countries control the World Bank and have voting power proportional to the amount they invest in it.

- The World Bank uses its power to open markets in the “Global South” for northern corporations.

- Although it had been promoting water privatization as one option several years prior to 1993, in that year, the World Bank adopted the Water Resources Management policy paper, which noted the “unwillingness” of the poor to pay for water services and stated that water should be treated as an economic commodity, with an emphasis on efficiency, financial discipline, and full-cost recovery – a principle that says that corporations can set water prices high enough to not only recover the cost of their investment, but to make profits for their investors.

- Increasingly, loans for public projects were rejected in favor of a private model, and between 1990 and 1996, the World Bank to funded more than 300 private water projects in the developing world.

- There are three basic types of water utility privatization:

1. Concession contracts give a private company a license to run the water system and charge customers to make a profit. The private company is responsible for all investments, including building new pipes and sewers to connect households.
India practices a form of extreme concession whereby whole river systems are leased to the companies who run them for profit without government interference.

2. Leases are contracts under which the company is responsible for running the distribution system and for making the investments necessary to repair and renew the existing assets, but the local government remains responsible for new investment.

3. Management contracts make the private company responsible only for managing the water service but not for any investments.

- Most of the World Bank’s current projects are leases or management contracts.

- Even though the notion of a partnership has the ring of democracy and shared responsibility, these contracts should all be considered privatizations because they all involve profits for the private companies and cutoffs to people who cannot pay for their “product.” What’s more, while those who live in third world communities have no alternative if the so-called partnership fails, the corporate partner will (and does) leave the partnership if the profits “dry up.”

- Using a “carrot and stick” approach, in which the carrot is both debt relief and the actual funds themselves, and the stick is the unspoken threat of the withdrawal of aid, countries are encouraged to adopt a private water services model.

The World Bank Manufactures Global Consensus on Privatization

- It is important that we examine how the World Bank and other global financial institutions came to impose this new model of water delivery on the “Global South”

- Sociologist Michael Goldman of the University of Minnesota has analyzed how the World Bank was able to promote a shift in water policy over a relatively short time, finding that it actively sought the buy-in of non-governmental organizations, think tanks, state agencies, the media and the private sector across the Global North and South.

- Through its Water Policy Capacity Building Program, the World Bank has put thousands of parliamentarians, policymakers, technical specialists, journalists, teachers, students, civil society leaders, and Third World elites through intensive programs on private water management so that they could then return to their respective third-world countries and promote a private model of water delivery to their governments.

- Their consensus is that debt and poverty are not the problem, but rather that the main problem with degraded water services in the Third World is inefficient and corrupt governments whose failure to protect water has led to a culture of wastefulness among the masses. Basically, the World Bank and its private sector colleagues maintain that the poor lack access to water because of their irresponsible governments, and that they are merely on an ethical mission of poverty alleviation.

Cochabamba Protests

- Known as the "Cochabamba Water Wars," these were a series of protests that took place in Cochabamba, Bolivia's third largest city, between January and April 2000 because of the privatization of the municipal water supply.

- In 2000, the World Bank declared it would not "renew" a $25 million loan to Bolivia unless it privatized its water services. According to Jim Shultz, executive director of the Democracy Center in Cochabamba, the World Bank believed that “poor governments are often too plagued by local corruption and too ill equipped to run public water systems efficiently. …[and that the use of private corporations] opens the door to needed investment and skilled management."

- A corporation called “Aguas del Tunari” took control of the water works of Cochabamba, and the government then passed Law 2029 which appeared to give Aguas del Tunari a monopoly over all water services.

- Demonstrations erupted when Aguas del Tunari imposed a large rate increase, reportedly to finance the Misicuni Dam project, a week after taking control of the Cochabamba water supply system. In a country where the minimum wage was less than US$70 per month, most residents were suddenly receiving monthly water bills of $20 or more.

- Protests ensued, with Oscar Olivera leading the Cochabamba people. After months of sometimes-violent protests, the Bolivian government conceded and Olivera signed a concord with the government guaranteeing the removal of Aguas del Tunari and turning Cochabamba’s water works over to La Coordinadora. Detained demonstrators were to be released and eventually Law 2029 was repealed.

Water Privatization Failure

- The only way for this to work is for the private sector to receive public subsidies, which they are meant to relieve. They depend on degrading water quality around the world.

Summary for Friday March 26th

Since we did not have a formal lecture today, there will be no summary. Your reading for Monday, courtesy of the Blue Covenant Group is an article from the April, 2010 issue of National Geographic: Water is Life.

The reading for Wednesday will be: Global Water Shortage Looms In New Century

Bottlemania/Blue Covenant Project

Below is a list of the requirements for our Bottlemania/Blue Covenant Project

Blue Covenant Group:

1. Teach two lectures: Monday, March 29 and Wednesday, March 31
2. Relevant reading assignments (not from the book) for Monday and Wednesday (assigned on Friday and Monday respectively)
3. Quiz on Friday, April 2nd (four multiple choice or fill in the blank questions that are knowledge based, can be answered quickly, and are relevant to the material presented in lecture or the assigned readings
4. One homework assignment- due whenever it is decided to be most relevant (Friday April 2nd at the latest)
5. Ten final exam questions- multiple choice, fill in the blank, matching with at least a few short answer questions. Due Friday April 9th in class at the latest.

Bottlemania Group:

1. Teach two lectures: Monday, April 5 and Wednesday, April 7
2. Relevant reading assignments (not from the book) for Monday and Wednesday (assigned on Friday and Monday respectively)
3. Quiz on Friday, April 9 (four multiple choice or fill in the blank questions that are knowledge based, can be answered quickly, and are relevant to the material presented in lecture or the assigned readings
4. One homework assignment- due whenever it is decided to be most relevant (Friday April 9 at the latest)
5. Ten final exam questions- multiple choice, fill in the blank, matching with at least a few short answer questions. Due Friday April 9th in class at the latest.

6. From each individual, I will need a summary statement describing your specific individual contributions to the group project.

Bottlemania/Blue Covenant Project lists

I will make an announcement in class tomorrow about the Bottlemania/Blue Covenant Project in which I will refer to the following list. Students with the following initials have chosen to be in the Bottlemania group.

CEB
ACB
BAB
ASB
CMC
CMC
GCA
JBH
TJ
EAM
DKM
TMM
JAP
TCR
GSR
RGS
VCS
JWS
CIS
EAV
CV

(Incidentally, we only have two people in our class who share initials and both are reading Bottlemania.)

Students with the following initials have chosen to be in the Blue Covenant group either by virtue of contacting me with their reference or by virtue of not contacting me before the Bottlemania Group filled.

CMB
KAB
ACC
JSD
DLG
SVG
AMK
EGL
TSM
BCM
SMP
CCR
MARS
RHR
RBS
CS
AHS
MW
ESY

Summary for Monday January 18th

Precipitation being, of course, an integral part of naturally-delivered water resources, we spent today's lecture discussing why it rains where it rains. The three factors that we discussed were

1. latitude (mostly due to changes in temperature)
2. distance from a moisture source such as the ocean (given prevailing direction of the wind)
3. elevation (orographic effects dominated by changes in temperature)

Following this lecture, you should be able to describe why a specific spot on the globe gets lots of annual rainfall or not. You should also be able to discuss the reason(s) for seasonal variations in precipitation patterns and why this is important from a resource perspective. You should also know how to interpret information on a 100-year 24 hr precipitation map (or a 10-year 2 precipitation map, for that matter), be aware of temporal (historical) variation in precipitation, and be able to explain why the percent of precipitation received as snow is important from a resource perspective. Finally, you should have a basic understanding of cloud seeding in terms of its effectiveness, how it works, what conditions and materials are required, and any possible negative consequences. Material relevant to our lecture today can be found in chapter 4 of Applied Principles of Hydrology.

For Wednesday, please read (and come ready to discuss) the following:

Burlington Council Launches New Stormwater Management Program by Mike Ives - This is an article that appeared in the Vermont's alternative weekly (yes, Vermont only has one alternative weekly newspaper for the entire state) about a year ago about a new way that the city of Burlington is going to implement a differential sewer tax based on infiltration vs. runoff and how this affects the cities sewers.

There is also an excellent explanation brochure written by the Burlington Department of Public Works that explains the changes and the reason behind the changes. Read this as well.

Also, if you have not yet read it, read chapter 5 (Infiltration and Soil Moisture) in Applied Principles of hydrology.

PowerPoint slides shown in lecture today are now available as a .pdf on Sakai.

The my maps page has been updated with the locations mentioned in today's lecture.

As of 1:30pm edt, Bottlemania is closed. Everyone who has not contacted me about a preference will be reading Blue Covenant.

Summary for Wednesday January 13th

...topics covered in today's lecture were focused on (a) the dam failure at Lake Merriweather and (b) the water cycle. Our discussion of lake Merriweather introduced the following important concepts (and by 'important' I mean 'stuff that ends up on quizzes and exams').

The role of the USGS
The role of the Army Corps of Engineers
The dual purpose of Goshen Dam/Lake Merriweather
Discharge (what is it and how is it calculated)
How to read a hydrograph
How to access real-time USGS hydrography information

Important things to remember from our introduction to the water cycle include:

The relative sizes of the various reservoirs on (and in) Earth
The driving forces behind the water cycle (solar energy and gravity)
The importance of continental runoff in the origins of life
The importance of oceanic/continental differential evaporation & precipitation in the water cycle and in sustaining life
The mechanisms of water cycling that occur at tectonic plate boundaries

Other things:

As of 2:40pm today, 24 of you have contacted me about your Bottlemania/Blue Covenant preference (16 for Bottlemania and 8 for Blue Covenant). This means that (a) everyone who has contacted me thus far will be reading the book of their choice and (b) the next 4 people to e-mail me with a request to read Bottlemania will be able to do so; the rest of y'all will be reading Blue Covenant.

PowerPoint slides shown in lecture today are now available as a .pdf on Sakai.

Please read chapter 4 of Manning for class on Friday and come prepared to take a short quiz.

Reading Materials

Our primary text will be:

Applied Principles of Hydrology 3rd Edition by John C Manning

This book should be available in the W&L bookstore.

We will also be reading the following texts:

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition by Marc Reisner

Letting Swift River Go by Jane Yolen

In addition to the three books above, one half of the class will be reading:

Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water by Maude Barlow

and the other half of the class will be reading:

Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It by Elizabeth Royte

Please read the additional reviews and summaries for Blue Covenant here and here (a preview is available in Google books here) and for Bottlemania here and here. Once you have decided which one you would like to read, send me an e-mail indicating your preference- If you have a strong preference either way, just be sure to be one of the first 18 people to e-mail me (lowp (at) wlu (dot) edu. Toward the end of the semester, you will be responsible for writing a summary and a critical book review of your selected book and your your half of the class will be responsible for teaching the other half of the class about your book (including lectures, homework, and a quiz).