{"id":46684,"date":"2015-08-07T22:11:31","date_gmt":"2015-08-08T04:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=46684"},"modified":"2015-08-07T14:48:38","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T21:48:38","slug":"get-used-to-thirst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/08\/07\/get-used-to-thirst\/","title":{"rendered":"Get used to thirst!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editorial By The Nation<\/a> <\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

The move to privatize water on a large scale didn\u2019t begin yesterday.\u00a0 The first noises were made around 25 years ago, when the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) set up its headquarters in Pelawatte, Colombo.<\/p>\n

Back then too the talk was about the efficient use of water. It was a design that was promoted by those who wanted to see rice being replaced by so-called \u2018High Value Crops\u2019.\u00a0 It was an attempted strike not only on rice but on a nation\u2019s cultural preferences.\u00a0 It was about enforced dependency.\u00a0 It was of course couched in the language of democracy: \u2018user control\u2019!\u00a0 That\u2019s the tried and tested method of securing control of resources: get the commons into the market and let the market forces sort things out.\u00a0 In the end the wealthy get it all.<\/p>\n

With respect to irrigation management what was commonly held and later acquired by the state in an absolute perversion done in the name of \u2018socialism\u2019 , was sought to be \u2018handed back to users\u2019.\u00a0 The collective ways by this time had been subverted.\u00a0 Societies weren\u2019t flat.\u00a0 There were and are big users and small.\u00a0 There was and is a political economy of agriculture.<\/p>\n

IMMI morphed quickly into International Water Resource Management.\u00a0 That\u2019s when that institute began investigating the possibility of controlling ground water resources.\u00a0 Through markets of course.<\/p>\n

Successive governments or rather key ministers in them were persuaded by interested parties to get the laws right to facilitate all this.\u00a0 It came in waves.\u00a0 Some highs followed by long periods when there was hardly a ripple.\u00a0 Rauff Hakeem, the subject minister, recently submitted a cabinet paper seeking the establishment of a River Valleys Management Authority. This was in March 2015.\u00a0 It was rejected by Cabinet.<\/p>\n

The Opposition has brought it up, rather late in the day,\u00a0 in the context of the upcoming election.\u00a0 That\u2019s politics.\u00a0 The question is, is the idea dead?\u00a0 Worryingly, this is an issue that keeps cropping up.\u00a0 As mentioned, the \u2018setting\u2019 was designed in the late eighties and early nineties.\u00a0 The \u2018rationale\u2019 was produced by \u2018contracted research\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018The Science\u2019 if necessary can be cited as and when necessary.\u00a0 An attempt was made in 2000 and 2001 but public protest buried that effort. This is why the public should not wait but keep abreast of these developments.<\/p>\n

The rationale is all sweet, as always.\u00a0 There\u2019s pollution, the Minister says.\u00a0 The users don\u2019t know the true value of water (he does?), he says.\u00a0 Agrochemical use is not properly regulated and quantity assessment is flawed, are other claims.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Shoved in the middle of it is this thing called \u2018water tariffs\u2019.<\/p>\n

The paper is essentially a re-hashing of the earlier document put together by NGOs with dubious agenda and brainwashed or rather brain-purchased officials.\u00a0 The details regarding water resources, land under rice cultivation and relevant costs have been scandalously cooked to justify \u2018regulation\u2019 in the manner advocated.\u00a0 In particular the \u2018water wastage in agriculture\u2019 is wrung out from a framework of calculation that negates important but unquantifiable benefits to humans, animals, plants and the environment in general.\u00a0 It is the work of neoliberal economists, clearly, and ones who are addicted to dumping the \u2018uncomfortables\u2019 into a dispensible column called externalities\u201d.<\/p>\n

The impact will be on the farmer.\u00a0 The small farmer in particular.\u00a0 It will result in a new tax regime that will further impoverish the poor and marginalized sections of society.
\nInterestingly, the paper mentions the fact that the earlier version was filed away due to public protest.\u00a0 Did the minister assume that the conditions are \u2018better\u2019 today in that the public will not protest?\u00a0 Are the movers and shakers waiting for a \u2018pliant public\u2019 to see these \u2018reforms\u2019 through?<\/p>\n

When they come back with a re-re-hashed version (who knows when?) will the public be ready?\u00a0 They better be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editorial By The Nation The move to privatize water on a large scale didn\u2019t begin yesterday.\u00a0 The first noises were made around 25 years ago, when the International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI) set up its headquarters in Pelawatte, Colombo. Back then too the talk was about the efficient use of water. It was a design […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46684\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}