International

On Wednesday the European Parliament votes on the Seeber report on water scarcity and drought. “Debates on oil are fierce, so why is this not the case for water?” asks SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard. She is currently completing a book on the subject of water policy, and will take the floor in the European Parliament debate on the subject.

Civil right

“Access to clean drinking water should be a civil right,” says Liotard. “The European Commission is overly concerned with water-saving and with the symptoms, rather than the malady. In intensive livestock farming, 2,400 litres of water (almost 530 gallons) are needed to produce 100 grammes of beef (almost a quarter pound). We would be better removing the causes, such as the use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides and defective sewerage, all of which present a threat to the purity of water.”

Fair shares

“Fair sharing of drinking water is the kernel of the issue for us,” she adds. “Now that nationalisation of banks is no longer taboo, it must be possible to protect publicly-owned water companies from the market. I will be presenting an amendment to guard water providers from the consequences of liberalisation. In developing countries which have been forced to sell off their water companies, this has led to major problems.”