People of Cochabamba are remembered at "Living River March" in Quebec City.

“When You Sell Water…”
By Meera Karunananthan

Two years ago, the people of Cochabamba won the battle against privatization of their water. When the Colombian government succumbed to pressure from the World Bank and sold the region’s public water system to American multinational corporation Bechtel, the citizens of Cochabamba (primarily working class) resisted. After a bloody battle, the Bolivian government conceded and broke the contract with Bechtel. The Cochabamba people’s battle against a giant multinational corporation has served as an inspiration for activists around the world. The following year, water activists from around the world gathered in Cochabamba to draft a declaration on water rights.

The declaration was handed out Thursday April 19th in Quebec City, at a march dubbed “The Living River March”. The march that began on the corner of Rene Levesque Est and Turnbull, brought together approximately 50 water activists from across the continent. The Pagan Cluster, a group of witches from the United States and Canada, was one of the main organizing groups. Dressed in shades of blue, they danced, chanted and performed spiritual rituals adding to the diversity of tactics we have witnessed in Quebec City so far. Members of the Pagan Cluster were among those gathered at the Cochabamba conference in December 2000.

“I am concerned with the ramifications in water quality and sovereignty implied in the FTAA” stated Jeanine, one of the protestors at the march. “I am concerned that the FTAA will allow corporations to refute restrictions placed by governments.” In Canada, the fear of water being exported by American corporations through free trade policies has raised public concern. The pending Sunbelt case in which the California-based corporation is suing the Canadian government for preventing it from exporting bulk water from BC, is demonstrative of governments’ loss of control over national resources through free trade policies.

The primordial nature of water has made it a cause for everyone. It has united environmentalists, peasants and witches across the borders. “We are water,” declared an activist at the march. “When you sell water, you are selling us!”