From the October 2000 Idaho Observer:
World body to charter First Global Bank of Water
By Hari Heath
What began as a financial institution to rebuild Europe after WWII is now beginning to reveal itself as the head of the Hydra. Originally chartered as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank has decided that the governments of the world totally mismanage water resources and, as a result, has decided that it will implement UN-enforced global water policy.
The World Bank, like its sibling the International Monetary Fund, are creatures from the dark side of the code. U.S. Code, Title 22, Foreign Relations and Intercourse, provides the legislated methods whereby our wealth (resources) (water) shall be redistributed to less fortunate nations as determined by international law.
How will the World Bank gain control of the world's fresh water?
The World Bank proposes to lend billions of dollars to developing countries. These billions of dollars are created out of thin air by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other money changers and are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. taxpayer and other ordinary working people whose assets are unwittingly used as collateral.
The $billions in paper money manufactured by the International banking community will then be loaned to small third world countries like China, Korea and Brazil. Through the benevolence of their fictional economic conveyances (loans), the World Bank will then gain voluntary concessions and compliance with World Bank mandates for resource extraction, private sector investments and the political restructuring of nations who contract with globalist lenders.
Going for the gold
Superseded only by air, water is the most essential element of life. The World Bank knows that ultimate control of all its human resources will only be accomplished after it gains control of the world's water.
To justify its hegelian agenda the World Bank states that current governments mismanage their water resources by: Mis-allocating and wasting water; enforcing weak and distorted policies which damage the environment; neglecting financial accountability and user participation; charging too low a price for water; failing to effectively deliver water to users, especially the poor and by administering water policy under a centralized structure.
The World Bank believes it should be the centralized structure empowered to resolve these problems by making loans -- with strings attached. By proclaiming that: 1) Water is essential for life; 2) Water has an economic value and is recognized as an economic good; and 3) Water is a scarce natural resource.
The World Bank proposes three solutions to the water problem: 1) Productive water users will be charged fees to subsidize the poor water users; 2) Benefit taxes will be charged for any benefits received from the water owners land; 3) Pollution charges will be assessed for any pollution that may be generated in the use of water for industrial purposes.
The World Bank proposes to remove federal authority over water policy by replacing all country and state political boundaries with geographical River Basins Boundaries. This will be accomplished with the transfer, by contract, of all water jurisdiction by governments to private corporations and user associations.
These corporations and user associations will be mandated to meet all World Bank regulations and prohibitions. A river basin includes all surface and underground water flowing into a common area including wetlands and will require an environmental impact and assessment of the entire river basin system. The river basin organizations will be assisted by the Global Environmental Facility in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Water privatization has already failed in Bolivia. The Bechtel Corporation, an engineering firm that builds bridges and dams all over the world, was awarded control of that country's water last year. By April 12, 2000, the entire nation had erupted into such civil disobedience over Bechtel's doubling the price of water that control was returned to the government of Bolivia.
The California legislature is currently flirting with the idea of privatizing the state's dams, reservoirs, and hundreds of miles of artificial rivers and waterways.
World Bank objectives are stipulated in the water project loan agreements (contracts) for each country. World Bank water projects loans clearly spell out that: In acceptance of the monies of the World Bank, the countries MUST participate in the international initiatives: i.e. United Nation's Conventions, Treaties, Agreements, and they MUST implement the World Bank's policies on water and land use.
World Bank Water Resource Management Program
The World Bank will oversee the UN-approved program (WRMP) which will dictate how water will be used through demand management consisting of: Price-based incentives to enforce low water usage; water rationing; and water restrictions on specific usage. The framework for the WRMP is consistent with the statement from the International Conference on Water and the Environment (UN), held in 1992 at Dublin, Ireland and AGENDA 21 from the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit II). Both documents share some guiding principles: A holistic approach tying social and economic development with protection of natural ecosystems including land and water linkages across catchment areas or ground water aquifers; a participatory approach for users, planners, and policy-makers' input.
Like any modern-day meeting between the public and bureaucrats, the outcome is predetermined and is unlikely to be overturned by anything short of a riot, as demonstrated in Bolivia. To control total water usage, the World Bank will raise the price of water to reduce water usage to their preset level of 40 liters/person/day. That's 10.57 gallons/person/day for all water usage. Using the guiding principle of Demand Management to control water by use of the price, volume restrictions, and regulations, full cost recovery is mandated to properly compensate the water agencies. In true hegelian form the Economic Development Institute division of the World Bank will train and supply the planners, managers, technicians, and provide policy analysis for community organizations, private sector units and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs).
In simpler terms, with adequate charges for water, the water agencies would achieve financial independence. Users pay the water agency for whatever water they use at whatever price the water agencies choose. They will operate with complete impunity in collaboration with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
On January 18, 1996, by Executive Order # 12986, President Clinton gave diplomatic immunity to IUCN.
The World Bank will use UN-affiliated governments as its police force. If the land owners will not join a User Association, then the government will impose regulations, taxes or both.
Since war-torn Europe was rebuilt after WWII, the World Bank has been used to formulate and implement global economic and land use strategies -- the most recent of which is World Bank water policy. World Bank water policy was unveiled with the help of the Environmental Defense Fund, the International Rivers Network, the World Rainforest Movement, and more than 40 other submissions, as well as a group presentation by 25 NGOs, at a World Bank conference May 28-29, 1992.
Environmental Defense Fund Staff Scientist Deborah Moore stated The development of a comprehensive water resources policy presents an opportunity for the [World] Bank to correct the extremely poor performance record of its investments in the water resources sector, specifically in irrigation, one of the Bank's largest subsectors... What is required is for the bank to re-prioritize its investments: To support demand management and water conservation programs...
Indeed, Agenda 21, in Chapter 18: Protection of the Quality and Supply of Freshwater Resources, specifically commits multilateral institutions like the World Bank to working towards holistic management of freshwater as a finite and vulnerable resource. The bank's Water Resources Policy should provide specific goals, objectives, and principles to ensure that all bank loans and credits result in efficient and productive investments, economic and social benefits, and long-term maintenance of our finite water supplies and water-dependent ecosystems.
Will the World Bank eventually become the First Global Water Bank and claim the oceans as their depository institution, the clouds (managed by weather control technology) as their delivery system, and all lakes, rivers and private wells as their branch offices? Will they then allow themselves to engage in fractional reserve banking based on their ocean deposits of water? Has the imagination of World bankers stretched itself so far as to believe they can take over the role of God and nature and claim ownership of the world's water?
World Bank plans to control the world's fresh water supply are described in detail in its Water Policy Paper.
To obtain a copy of the 1993 World Bank Water Policy Paper contact the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development /THE WORLD BANK, 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20433 U.S.A.