March 19, 2006
Omaha World Herald
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Water is so scarce or polluted in some parts of the world that the poor might actually go to war to get their hands on it, said activists at a protest summit held in conjunction with the fourth World Water Forum here.
That attitude might appear over the top in most developed nations, where water flows freely. But it isn't nearly as accessible in the developing world.
The World Water Forum has assembled representatives of 130 nations to discuss water management around the globe. They have pledged to focus on the world's poor, many of whom live on less than 21/2 gallons of water a day - one-thirtieth of the daily usage in some developed nations.
But those protesting at an alternative summit, also being held in Mexico City, say the official forum is little more than a cover for big corporations interested in selling bottled water and running water systems for profit.
Maria Cruz de Paz, a Mazahua Indian, said at the alternative meeting that water wars are not merely an apocalyptic vision of the future. She recalled angry protests that temporarily shut off part of Mexico City's water supply in 2004.
The Mazahuas were angered "because pipes carrying water to the city cross our land . . . but we didn't have a drop to drink," she said.
Others tell of similar struggles. "We've been beaten, we've been jailed, some of us have even been killed, but we're not going to give up," said Marco Suastegui, who is leading the battle against a dam being built to supply water for the Pacific coastal resort of Acapulco. Opponents fear the dam will dry up the nearby Papagayo River.
"We will defend the water of the Papagayo River with our lives, if need be," Suastegui said.
Many of the battles over water in Mexico don't involve people who would be considered radicals. Those on the front lines are residents of low-income neighborhoods in Mexico City who get in fistfights over water truck deliveries, or housewives who can no longer stand the stench of untreated sewage flowing beside their houses.
Local Mexico City legislator Aleida Alavez Ruiz said the conflicts may intensify, especially in the capital, whose combination of floods and water shortages, urban sprawl, pollution and wasteful practices make it a poster child for the world's water woes.
"It's getting critical. . . the conflicts will get worse," Alavez Ruiz said of her district, where residents have fought over water trucks that make deliveries when tap water runs out.
Loic Fauchon, president of the nongovernmental group the World Water Council, and a co-chair of the official water forum, has proposed creating a peacekeeping force to solve water conflicts as they erupt around the world.
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