Reports: Water

The United Nations General Assembly declared in July 2010 that access to clean water and sanitation is an essential human right, calling on countries and organizations to help provide access for the 884 million people currently without safe drinking water and the more than 2.6 billion people without basic sanitation.

For the past 25 years, emissions trading, known more recently as “cap-and-trade,” has been promot­ed as the best strategy for solving pollution prob­lems. Based on an obscure economic theory that gained prominence in the 1960s at the University of Chicago, it was embraced by the Reagan administra­tion as a replacement for regulating air emissions. Since that time, it has gained acceptance among environmental organizations and the largest environmental funders.

Within the past decade, technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” have enabled the oil and gas industry to extract large quantities of oil and natural gas from shale formations in the United States. However, the practice has proven controversial. Pollution from modern drilling and fracking has caused widespread environ- mental and public health problems and created serious, long-term risks to underground water resources.

In this report, Food & Water Watch reviews the risks and costs of shale development that have been demonstrated in the United States, including economic costs that run counter to industry-backed claims about the economic benefits of the practice.

Food & Water Watch then summarizes the state of shale development in six selected countries: France, Bulgaria, Poland, South Africa, China and Argentina.

Europe Report: Within the past decade, technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” have enabled the oil and gas industry to extract large quantities of oil and natural gas from shale formations in the United States. However, the practice has proven controversial. Pollution from modern drilling and fracking has caused wide­spread environmental and public health problems and created serious, long-term risks to under­ground water resources.

In this report, Food & Water Europe reviews the risks and costs of shale development that have been demonstrated in the United States, including eco­nomic costs that run counter to industry-backed claims about the economic benefits of the practice.

Clean drinking water and wastewater treatment are basic services that societies and governments provide. Water is a necessity for life, and safe water and sanitation are crucial for public health. In July 2010, the United Nations declared access to clean water and sanitation to be a human right. But recognizing the human right to water does not explain how to deliver this right to households. Even with this commitment to enhance water delivery and safety, an estimated 884 million people worldwide lack access to safe water, and 2.6 billion lack access to improved sanitation.

Europe Report: Clean drinking water and wastewater treatment are basic services that societies and governments provide. Water is a necessity for life, and safe water and sanitation are crucial for public health. In July 2010, the United Nations declared access to clean water and sanitation to be a human right. But recognizing the human right to water does not explain how to deliver this right to households. Even with this commitment to enhance water delivery and safety, an estimated 884 million people worldwide lack access to safe water, and 2.6 billion lack access to improved sanitation.

The oil and gas industry, industry-funded academics and ideological think tanks have promoted shale gas development — through the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — as a sure-fire job creator during difficult economic times. Food & Water Watch closely examined a recent report touting the job-creation potential of shale gas development and found numerous inaccuracies and methodological flaws. Even after correcting for these problems, questions remain about the validity of using economic forecasting models to predict the economic impacts of expanded shale gas development.

From the moment she became New Mexico’s governor on January 1, 2011, Susana Martinez has worked overtime to dismantle key protections that the
state put in place for the benefit of New Mexicans and the air, water and land they cherish.

Over the past decade, there has been a rush for new natural gas across America using a controversial — and often polluting — drilling method. Hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, injects a mixture of water, sand and chemicals under high pressure into dense rock formations — shale, tight sandstone or coal beds — to crack the rock and release natural gas. Fracking has been around for decades, but the techniques, technologies and chemicals used to reach new, remote gas reserves are more intensive and riskier than conventional gas drilling.

Veolia’s corporate profits plummeted in 2008 and remained languid through 2010. In the water division, the company has suffered major losses from municipalizations and has struggled to obtain new long-term privatizations. Despite its disappointing performance, the company continued many of the same strategies in 2011 that it had used over the preceding five years. It sought long-term, complex contracts to control entire municipal water and sewer systems. Such arrangements, however, seem to be increasingly rare for the company. For Veolia, complex deals were appealing because they involved less competition. The company and several of its peers have come under the scrutiny of anti-trust regulators in the European Union. Veolia has focused half of its new growth investments in Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, where it has the financial backing of multilateral lending institutions.