The Water Barons
by Judi McLeod, Canada Free Press, May 26, 2003

The Bluebeards of the 21st century, now in control of our water, are the pirates of the present day. Coming soon to an urban centre near you, they are the Water Barons.

The necessity of armed guards keeping the thirsting masses away from the water tap is part of the not too distant future, according to some sources. Isn’t it odd that the same sources voicing alarm about the imminent scarcity of H20 just happen to be the same ones who own it?

UN special advisor, Canadian Maurice Strong, is on the public record predicting that water will have to be rationed by armed guards as soon as 2031. Exactly how Strong, who is a businessman and not a scientist, can make such a prediction is an unknown factor. Strong claims that he didn’t know there was a massive aquifer under the 100,000-acre Baca ranch he and his wife Hannah once owned*. The ranch, sold by Strong to flamboyant businessman Gary Boyce, and now owned by the Nature Conservancy, includes 14,154-foot Kit Carson Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, and extends a dozen miles south to Great Sand Dunes National Monument. The Baca is part of the upper San Luis Valley, which in turn sits above an immense amount of sediment extending two to six miles deep and holding -- at least 2 billion acre-feet of water. That’s 50 times the combined capacity of Lake Powell and Lake Mead, according to High Country News writer Ed Quillen.

Strong is not alone in the exploitation of the precious liquid by which the entire human species survives. Experts, who predict that the water crisis will hit much sooner, say that by the year 2025 the world will be suffering the dramatic effects of--hydrological poverty. They share the Maurice Strong view that there will be great disputes, and even wars, over water.

"Failure to act could damage the planet irreversibly, unleashing a spiral of increased hunger, deprivation, disease, and squalor," states Nexus Magazine. There’s even a name for the timeline for the water crisis. It’s called "zero hour." Sound like something out of a science fiction novel?

Consider what Nexus has to say about the status quo of H20.

"Already, 26 countries have more people than their water supplies can adequately support. Tensions are mounting over scarce water supplies in the Middle East, and could ignite during this decade. Competition for water is intensifying between city dwellers and farmers around Beijing, New Delhi, Phoenix, and other water-short areas."

In 1996, the World Water Council, a private think-tank, was formed. The founding members were Egypt’s Ministry of Public Works and Water Resources, the Canadian International Development Agency, and the French transnational water corporation Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. At a 1998 meeting held in Washington, D.C., the World Water Council appointed a group of commissioners to turn the United Nations-controlled World Water Vision into reality. The membership of the World Water Commission reads like a who’s who of the ruling elite, and included in its high profile commissions is--Maurice Strong.

Environmental groups have tied up much of the land in the Western United States. Indeed it was in 2000 that the Nature Conservancy, which the Washington Post says is now "the world’s richest environmental group, amassing $3 billion in assets by pledging to save precious places" that acquired the 100,000 Baca Ranch as the final step toward creating the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.

The Nature Conservancy, which uses the soothing voice of actor Paul Newman in its advertisements, is gaining notoriety for its practice of buying private land and then selling it to the federal government at substantial mark up. "These environmental groups tie up land owners in court who wish to develop their land, costing untold court costs and attorney fees, wearing the land owner down until he/she is willing to sell at a sacrificed price to get out from under the pressure," says Betty Freauf of NewsWithViews.com. "Now that they have much of the land in Western United States tied up, I’ve noticed they are beginning to focus on water quality."

Would you trust these water barons with your water supply?

SMART METER WATER WOES BEGIN