by Lucie Shores

Created on: November 05, 2008   Last Updated: January 14, 2010

Over 2,000 years ago the philosopher Lao-Tzu made this statement - "The solution for the Sage who would transform the world lies in water." 

According to reports by USAID, irrigated agriculture uses 70 percent of the world's developed water supplies to produce 40 percent of the world's food supply. The same report goes on to state technological development in these countries brings devastation to local populations. New business and wealthy interests facilitate the corruption of private entities engaged in developing water supplies. That in turn forces emerging populations into worse poverty, heightened incidence of illness and communal desperation.

According to the US-based Government Accountability Program (GAP) and reported by  Transparency International (TI) the World Bank has not cooperated with governmental oversight or others representing various interests in developing the world's water supplies. GAP Author Shripad Dharmadhikary writes: "the Bank's process of generating knowledge is flawed and exclusionary. It excludes common people, and their traditional expertise and knowledge.....The knowledge creation is mostly directed towards arriving at a pre-determined set of policies.....This knowledge creation is often selective, in that information, evidence or experiences that do not support these pre-determined outcomes, are ignored." Further, Dharmadhikary finds that "[the Bank's] policies have cut people's access to water, led to environmental destruction, resulted in displacement and destitution of people, stifled better options for water resource management, have had huge opportunity costs, and privileged corporate profits over social responsibility and equity."

Nowhere was this more blatantly demonstrated than in the World Bank's dealings in Tanzania, Armenia, Zambia and India. The bank was intent on privatization, having experienced great success in the first round of lending to local business interests in very poor countries. When corporate interests from the UK and a multi-national interest called ACEA became the arbiters of water policy and practice in Tanzania and Armenia, quality was quickly lost. The resource was precious and its control allowed much corruption. Money was skimmed off, access was reduced and government officials joined forces with corrupt corporate representatives to embezzle funds. In spite of these problems, the World Bank insists private enterprise is the best way to give local populations the benefit of the business

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