![]() In California, Bechtel installed one of the nuclear power plant reactors backwards. Bechtel has botched many of its previous projects. The secretive, opaque and no-bid nature of the water contract award process is made even worse by one incredible fact. Therefore, the most lucrative Iraq reconstruction contract was not used to repair oil facilities, build schools and hospitals, or to repair bombarded infrastructure: it was used to source, process, and distribute water. Agency for International Development (USAID) for US$100 billion thus, making it the largest Iraq reconstruction contract. On April 17, 2003, in Iraq, the American company Bechtel received a no-bid reconstruction contract from U.S. It is now clear that the age of hydro-imperialism is upon us. These predictions became realized in quick succession, beginning with the recent wars in Iraq, Libya and Syria. Prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, CIA analysts reported on a prediction of a new theater of war: hydrological warfare, “in which rivers, lakes and aquifers become national security assets to be fought over, or controlled”. The third wave of imperialist wars is currently being fought over nature’s most valuable commodity: water. is centering its foreign policy around oil is hardly new in spirit, albeit unprecedented in scope. Nevertheless, the means by which the U.S. ![]() military’s transformation into a global oil-protection armed force, puts up a democratic facade, emphasizes freedom of the seas (or pipeline routes), and seeks to secure, protect, drill, and ship oil, not to administer everyday affairs. ![]() Modern petro-imperialism, the key aspect of which is the U.S. The second wave of imperialism has been driven by an unquenchable, post-industrial thirst for oil. This coincided with white pioneers brutally conquering Southern Africa, also in search of gold. An unprecedented kidnapping of millions of Africans ensued, so as to replace the indigenous Americans that had initially been exterminated by their European conquerors. Old-fashioned colonialists, regal and unembarrassed, rode in on horseback, brutally took control of American territories, sent in ostrich-plumed governors, minted coins with the Queen’s head on them, and gazed proudly over natives toiling away in perilous mine-shafts. There have been three waves of resource-driven imperialism in the modern era.Ī quest for gold fueled the first wave. Unlike oil, there are no substitutes, alternatives or stopgaps for water. Increasingly, for water to be useful, it needs to be mined, processed, packaged, and transported, just like gold, coal, gas or oil. By 2030, climate change, population growth, pollution and urbanization will compound, such that the demand for water globally is estimated to outstrip supply by forty percent. Nature has decreed that the supply of water is fixed all the while, demand is rising as the world’s population increases and enriches itself. Put differently: if all the water on earth was represented by an 11-litre jug, the freshwater would fill a single cup, and we can only access the last drop. Of the world’s fresh water, only one percent is available for drinking, with the remaining two percent trapped in glaciers and ice. The problem is that 97 percent is salt water. This scarcity flies in the face of our natural assumptions. Broadly speaking, Western interest in the Middle East is becoming increasingly about a commodity more precious than oil, namely water.Īccording to the U.S.-based Center for Public Integrity, Western nations stand to make up to a US$1 trillion from privatizing, purifying and distributing water in a region where water often sells for far more than oil.Īlthough over two thirds of our planet is water, we face an acute shortage. People who think that the West’s interventions in Iraq, Libya and Syria are only about oil are mistaken. Water is to the twenty-first century what oil was to the twentieth century: the commodity that determines the wealth and stability of nations.
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