water as food

After watching the documentary from BBC2 I though to write what I think about the water business around the world. Water is a primarily element for our existence. As I wrote before in this blog, water is now a right for every human being living in this planet. the UN has finally agreed on this not long ago.This is a extract of the document:

"By a vote of 122 in favour to none against, with 41 abstentions, the General Assembly today adopted, as orally revised, a resolution calling on States and international organizations to provide financial resources, build capacity and transfer technology, particularly to developing countries, in scaling up efforts to provide safe, clean, accessible and affordable drinking water and sanitation for all.

By a text on the human right to water and sanitation, the Assembly expressed deep concern that some 884 million people were without access to safe drinking water and more than 2.6 billion lacked access to basic sanitation.  Bearing in mind the commitment to fully achieve the Millennium Development Goals, it expressed alarm that 1.5 million children under five years old died each year as a result of water- and sanitation-related diseases, acknowledging that safe, clean drinking water and sanitation were integral to the realization of all human rights."

But before every human being in poor parts of the world gets this right ( drinking water available for everyone), we still have to provide this fundamental resource to people living in modern countries. As I said, after selling the land, now we are selling the water. Why? And why only few multinational groups have this monopoly? Who authorise them? They say that they can provide pure clean water, better water than the tap water. Why they do that? Because water is now polluted in many rivers and is not drinkable. Who polluted the water?
Water should never be privatise as private companies put profit first. No one can deny this because otherwise the companies won't do it for nothing. The precious liquid, that from rivers and sea and rain finally reaches us to keep us alive is now sold into plastic bottles made from oil. We buy water and soon we will be buying the air we are now breathing for free. The free water from the fountain in the streets of my town are no there anymore. it was free water from the above mountain, canalised by the Benedictine monks long ago, and because someone has decided to take it away ( the water ) we had to wait long time before the infrastructure was in place in order to have water in the houses. Now the water from the tap is not drinkable, so we are force to buy water at extra costs, because we already pay water taxes.
Water is food. No water, no food. To produce a bottle of coca cola the water used and wasted is unthinkable.
" Communities across India living around Coca-Cola's bottling plants are experiencing severe water shortages, directly as a result of Coca-Cola's massive extraction of water from the common groundwater resource. The wells have run dry and the hand water pumps do not work any more. Studies, including one by the Central Ground Water Board in India, have confirmed the significant depletion of the water table.
When the water is extracted from the common groundwater resource by digging deeper, the water smells and tastes strange. Coca-Cola has been indiscriminately discharging its waste water into the fields around its plant and sometimes into rivers, including the Ganges, in the area. The result has been that the groundwater has been polluted as well as the soil. Public health authorities have posted signs around wells and hand pumpsWater shortages, pollution of groundwater and soil, exposure to toxic waste and pesticides is having impacts of massive proportions in India. In a country where over 70% of the population makes a living related to agriculture, stealing the water and poisoning the water and soil is a sure recipe for disaster. Thousands of farmers in India have been affected by Coca-Cola's practices, and Coca-Cola is guilty of destroying the livelihoods of thousands of people in India. Unfortunately, we do not even know the extent of the damage as a result from exposure to the toxic waste and pesticides as these are long term problems. Most affected are the marginalized communities such as the Adivasis (Indigenous People's) and Dalits (formerly untouchables), as well as the low-income communities, landless agricultural workers and women. Taken in its entirety, that's a lot of people in India. ps advising the community that the water is unfit for human consumption. "
We can see how those multimillion profit companies act and I think they do not care about what they do as long their profit goes up. They say is because is a people choice, I say it is not a fair choice. if you go to a supermarket and you find on the shelves 10 different products, then you start to be in difficulties to decide what to choose. If there are only 2 products, then you will choose between them. Is not people choice is them creating it. That would be OK if what they created is damaging, or ,putting in danger people life.
So, that precious water is actually the basic ingredient for the food chain, and not only a simple essential drink. What the UN meant using the " affordable " term remain unclear or suspicious, but still better than nothing. At least the message is clear in the waider contest. If it will became applicable depends on individual governments.
As for me, business as usual. More pasta and vegetables ( left overs). I hope to be able to calculate what I used in the first month, just to have a better idea on how much food I really need.