Thema dieser Woche war die rapide Urbanisierung weltweit. Die Woche schloss mit dem “Stockholm Statement” mit folgenden Ergebnissen:

20% increase in total food supply-chain efficiency

20% increase in water efficiency in agriculture

20% increase in water use efficiency in energy production 

20% increase in the quantity of water reused 

20% decrease in water pollution

Wie bei dem MDGs dere Ziel es ist bis 2015 die Armut zu halbieren, ist es hierbei ebenso fraglich, wie diese Zahlen in der Realität umgesetzt werden sollen.

http://www.worldwaterweek.org/sa/node.asp?node=1269

Globalization reaches its new peak: An indian company produces roses which need a lot irrigation in Ethiopia (and Kenia)  which are exported to Europe.

http://www.karuturi.com/

Episode aus der Dokumentation “Hunger in Ostafrika – ein Wettlauf gegen die Zeit” von Werner Zeppenfeld, Peter Schreiber u.a.

http://www.3sat.de/programm/#2310

As a side-show to the display of war machinery, the Russian aeroplane manufacturer Beriev demonstrated their newest water bomber, the Beriev 200-ES in an air show.The aeroplane can take up to 12 cubic meters of water, which equals 12.5 tons of the liquid.

Beriev 200-ES. Source: http://www.beriev.com/

Why should this be interesting? In pure market logics, the Rafale jet is a commodity offered to meet an acute demand for a universal fighter jet in the wake of the millennium. The Beriev 200-ES is an offer to meet another very acute demand in the early 21st century: Climate change and water scarcity caused the urgent demand for solutions to move huge amounts of water in a short time to dump them on fires:

“In the last few years, the Beriev Be-200 Altair has helped fight massive forest fires in Greece, Italy, Portugal, Malaysia, Indonesia and Israel.”

As Slobodan Lekic writes in another AP article on the Le Bourguet Show. The University of Maryland Fire Information for Resource Management System provides an impressive visualizations of the cause of this demand. Here’s an animation of detected fires in 2010:

FIRMS: 2010 Fire Detection Animation

Clearly visible the Russian fire crisis in the summer months of 2010. Up-to-date visualizations of detected fires of the last 24 hours are available as KML files, viewable on Google Earth or Google Maps or as Plugin File for NASA World Wind.

According to Lekic’s article, Beriev anticipates a “growing global market for well over 100 water bombers in the next decade”. As a comparison: The United States Forest Service disposes of a total number of 23 firefighting aircrafts mostly run by third-party contractors. These contractors play an important role in postmodern disaster management. In the 21st century, not only war is the father of all things, it’s disaster: Kathrina, Fukushima, wildfires, the Mexican gulf oil spill. Wars, crisis and catastrophes are the emerging markets of the 21st century. And, as our times go, there are no problems, there are only solutions. Or as Naomi Klein puts it:

“I call it the Disaster Capitalism Complex. Whatever you might need in a serious crunch, these contractors can provide it: generators, watertanks, cots, port-a-potties, mobile homes, communications systems, helicopters, medicine, men with guns.”

(Her most recent book focuses on this economic phenomenon.)

While Dasani has become a market success in the US, Coca Cola decided to withdraw the brand from the UK, after potentially carcinogen chemicals were found in the processed water:

“Through detailed analysis, we discovered that our product did not meet our quality standards. Because of the high level of bromide contained in the calcium chloride, a derivate of bromide, bromate, was formed at a level that exceeded UK legal standards. This occurred during the ozonisation process we employ in manufacturing.”

The fact that the tap water was purer in the first place than the purified water exposed the company to lots of ridicule and the decision to withdraw from the UK market was very likely an attempt to contain the damage.

Nevertheless, Dasani ranges among the most consumed bottled water brands in the States. A new publicity ploy tries to add another surplus value besides pureness: sustainability. The Dasani Plant Bottle is claimed to be made from up to 30% plant-based material, the rest of recycled PET. As the website claims, the Coca Cola Company contributes to “future, where every plastic bottle is made from materials that are 100% renewable as well as recyclable”.

Just like the implicit claim that purified water is purer than the natural base material, also this ploy is based on interesting implicit assumptions: 1. We will need bottled water in the future, 2. Renewable plastic material is a real alternative because 3. it is a natural product. In this, these assumptions resemble very much those associated with “Biodiesel”, where the the prefix Bio- not only implies that its made of living organisms (in contrast to fossil fuels), but that it’s actually good for the environment.

The commercial for the Danasi PlantBottles suggest this by making a bottle grow out of a plant: Whereas the original idea of purity is based on making the water purer than nature, the PlantBottle is being represented as a natural product again. Or at least up to 30%, for the time being.

A satirical overdubbing of the posted by the Nautical Tribe (a TV show I didn’t know so far) calls attention to this paradox: Designed to make a difference, as the PlantBottle claim goes, turns out to be Designed to fake a difference and a greenwashing attempt.

Italy’s voting public have overturned no less than four laws by the Berlusconi government in today’s referendum. In the wake of Fukushima the public’s clear ballot against a revival of nuclear energy in Italy understandably takes up a prominent position in news headlines. The ballot is also being seen as one of a number of heavy blows Berlusconi’s fragile coalition has been dealt recently, after two serious regional defeats in Naples and Milan.

In today’s referendum several questions were to be decided upon by the public: Should politicians be given a certain immunity in legal trials? Should Italy have – at last again – its own nuclear plants? And should the public water service be run and capitalized upon by private companies? The latter question takes up a less prominent position in the perspective of foreign news coverage, but is one of great importance to many Italian families.

The law on water privatization is a part of so-called “Ronchi Decree”, named after Andrea Ronchi, minister of communitarian politics in the current Berlusconi government, which has become a law in 2009. The decree revises community service practices and envisaged to give way to a de facto privatization and capitalization on public water services by private stakeholders by guaranteeing “non-discrimination and equal treatment” to private companies who wish to participate in the public water services sector. Furthermore, public water service companies who were already listed on stock exchange were allowed to be owned by only less than a third, whereas 70% had to be in the hands of private investors.

A broad social movement subsumed in the “Italian Forum of Water Movements” consisting of 150 communities and political organizations called for a halt of broad liberalization of public services and the capitalization on something most Italians seem to see as a public good. Their campaigning work has reached a considerable amount of concerned voters: The ballots of today’s referendum are extremely articulate: 96% of those who went to vote (which were in turn 57% of the voting public) refused to accept the Ronchi Decree, the ballots against nuclear energy and legal immunity for politicians were equally high.