Tag: Water

Water, War and Women in Gaza

Water, War and Women in Gaza

H. Patricia Hynes

Israel’s War on Gaza created Ideal Environment for Polio Virus, Limiting Clean Water and Sanitation

Israel’s War on Gaza created Ideal Environment for Polio Virus, Limiting Clean Water and Sanitation

Oxfam: Israel Has Reduced Water Access in Gaza by 94 Percent Since October

Reduced Water Access in Gaza by 94 Percent Since October

Israel using water as weapon of war

Israel using water as weapon of war as Gaza supply plummets by 94%, creating deadly health catastrophe: Oxfam

Oxfam analysis also found:

  • Israeli military attacks have damaged or destroyed five water and sanitation infrastructure sites every three days since the start of the war.
  • The destruction of water and electricity infrastructure and restrictions on entry of spare parts and fuel (on average a fifth of the required amount is allowed in) saw water production drop by 84% in Gaza. External supply from Israel’s national water company Mekorot fell by 78%.
  • Israel has destroyed 70% of all sewage pumps and 100% of all wastewater treatment plants, as well as the main water quality testing laboratories in Gaza, and restricted the entry of Oxfam water testing equipment.
  • Gaza City has lost nearly all its water production capacity, with 88% of its water wells and 100% of its desalination plants damaged or destroyed.

Israel using water as a weapon of war.

How Israel Weaponizes Water

Watering golf courses is more important than providing piped water to the thousand of children under the age of five who die every day due to water deprivation. Those are the values of the capitalist system.

By November 2023, it was already clear that the Israeli government had begun to deny Palestinians in Gaza access to water. 

“Every hour that passes with Israel preventing the provision of safe drinking water in the Gaza strip, in brazen breach of international law, puts Gazans at risk of dying of thirst and diseases related to the lack of safe drinking water’, said Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation.

“Israel,” he noted, “must stop using water as a weapon of war.” 

Source: How Israel Weaponizes Water

Israel uses Starvation as a Weapon of War in Gaza

While Goebellian Propagandists like Dr. Eli David brag about Israel’s generosity for allowing hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza the drivers report they are being shot at by the Israelis. Fewer trucks enter daily for the 2.3M people than did before this war and back then they were only delivering the calorific minimum. Gazans had to supplement their own food sterilize their own water and queued for 12 hours to seek permission for medical help. Often simply refused and turned back.

The hospitals are now destroyed nothing grows and the civilians are totally imprisoned and living in tents or scavenged plastic. They are being killed,shot like fish in a barrel by 2000-pound American bomb, tanks, snipers, and conscripted troops on the ground. Meanwhile, The Supreme Court of Israel isn’t cheering as loudly as the Netanyahu Government would want and troops are being pulled out. Will the ICJ let this genocidal activity pass?

The use of mass starvation as a weapon of war echoes a historical barbarity that humanity should have long transcended. This egregious strategy, reminiscent of past sieges where starvation was deliberately employed as a tool of warfare, highlights the dire consequences of collective punishment on innocent civilians.

In Gaza, Israel has been deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food and other essentials to the besieged enclave’s 2.2 million people.

Source: Israel uses Starvation as a Weapon of War in Gaza

Israel: Starvation Used as a Weapon of War in Gaza

How else is genocide defined?

Evidence Indicates Civilians Deliberately Denied Access to Food, Water

The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians

Source: Israel: Starvation Used as a Weapon of War in Gaza

Gaza is deliberately being made uninhabitable – Pearls and Irritations

Palestinians inspect the damage following an Israeli airstrike on the El-Remal aera in Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Israel continued to battle Hamas fighters on October 10 and massed tens of thousands of troops and heavy armour around the Gaza Strip after vowing a massive blow over the Palestinian militants' surprise attack. Photo by Naaman Omar apaimages

When people talk about genocide in Gaza, they’re not just talking about the thousands of civilians who’ve been killed in Israeli airstrikes. The policies Israel has been deliberately putting in place have the potential to kill many, many more people than that in the coming months, and if Netanyahu and his goons get their way, that’s exactly what will happen.

Source: Gaza is deliberately being made uninhabitable – Pearls and Irritations

No, Israel Is Not Making the Desert Bloom

For decades, Israel has boasted of “making the desert bloom,” as if Palestinians never even existed. As Israel today pushes Gazans toward mass dehydration, we should remember its longstanding efforts to colonize land through its control of the water supply.

Source: No, Israel Is Not Making the Desert Bloom

“I expect you to Die” – Israel’s biggest Crime isn’t threatening Hospitals, it is Starving 2.2 Million Civilians of Potable Water

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Our eyes are naturally drawn to bombings and air strikes and statistics on the dead. This principle is exemplified by the furor over the bombing of al-Ahli Hospital, the responsibility for which it is difficult to fix amid the fog of war. It should be remembered, however, that Israel has threatened many other hospitals, demanding that they be evacuated, however unrealistic that demand might be. But the threat of total war on Gaza civilians comes from a different policy, which is endangering their lives on a much grander scale if in less garish ways.

Source: “I expect you to Die” – Israel’s biggest Crime isn’t threatening Hospitals, it is Starving 2.2 Million Civilians of Potable Water

Israel’s Strategic Weaponization of Water Against Palestine is a War Crime

By Anjuman Rahman AnjumanAleena ( Middle East Monitor ) – The universal human right to water, ensuring “sufficient safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic uses” is a principle upheld by international conventions. However, in the Occupied West Bank, this right is systematically violated through Israel’s targeted assaults on civilian water infrastructure. Just last week, Israeli occupation forces raided the peaceful village of Susiya, nestled south of Hebron in the Occupied West Bank, ruthlessly dismantling its main water network. Fuad Al-Amour, the Coordinator of the Protection and Resilience Committee in Masafer Yatta, expressed dismay over the

Source: Israel’s Strategic Weaponization of Water Against Palestine is a War Crime

Takes the plunge: Tanya Plibersek releases roadmap to fix Australia’s water trading wreck – Michael West

Water Minister Tanya Plibersek has released the “Roadmap” document accepting Australia’s water trading markets are “a market-design car-crash” and backed the findings of the long-awaited ACCC report. Authors of Sold Down the River, Stuart Kells and Scott Hamilton, report.

Source: Takes the plunge: Tanya Plibersek releases roadmap to fix Australia’s water trading wreck – Michael West

In land of flooding rains, we still don’t give our biggest river system the care it needs – Michael West Media

Commonwealth legislation on water market behaviour governance and integrity is still very much a ‘work in progress’, or perhaps even a twinkle in the Treasurer’s eye. Like so many other integrity issues, it is in the too-hard basket. But now is the time to act. Water is abundant, tempers have been cooled, and greater attention is being applied to the complex challenge of balancing the competing uses of water and our river system. Waiting till the next drought might seem easy, but it will make reform many times harder.

Source: In land of flooding rains, we still don’t give our biggest river system the care it needs – Michael West Media

Robber barons and high-speed traders dominate Australia’s water market

What began as an informal arrangement between neighbouring farmers, where one farm’s surplus water could be transferred to another, has over the past two decades morphed into a complex set of commodity markets whose annual turnover exceeds A$1.8 billion.

Source: Robber barons and high-speed traders dominate Australia’s water market

Going Nuts: Murray Darling’s “unbelievably beautiful story” for investors a nightmare for farmers, environment – Michael West

Duxton Water executives have been boasting about “beautiful” structural imbalances in Australia’s water market, and potentially dazzling profits from drought. Corporate nut farming is thirsty business and the proliferation of almond farms is poised to whip up prices and crush traditional agriculture in Australia’s food bowl, reports Callum Foote.

Source: Going Nuts: Murray Darling’s “unbelievably beautiful story” for investors a nightmare for farmers, environment – Michael West

Let the Vandalism Begin: Adani Strikes Coal – » The Australian Independent Media Network

In correspondence between an employee and Dow regarding a query by Guardian Australia on available aqueous sources, it was suggested “we do not give [the paper] anything more than what is already on the public record from us. They are clearly struggling to work out where we are getting our water, so I don’t think we give them any further clarity.” Dow approved of the measure.

Source: Let the Vandalism Begin: Adani Strikes Coal – » The Australian Independent Media Network

‘Death of the river system’: Nationals make it legal to illegally take water from Upper Darling – Michael West

The NSW Liberals and Nationals have snuck through floodplain harvesting legislation that allows upstream irrigators to take up to five times (500 %) their licensed water allotments, potentially devastating the already fragile Murray Darling system. Callum Foote reports.

Source: ‘Death of the river system’: Nationals make it legal to illegally take water from Upper Darling – Michael West

Old Dog Thought- 8 years of the LNP is the nation really smiling?

May be an image of text that says 'TOP FIVE FOREIGN OWNERS OF AUSTRALIAN WATER 1.CANADA 698 LITRES BILLION 2.CHINA 662 LITRES BILLION 660 BILLION LITRES 375 LITRES BILLION 3.USA ¥4.UK 4.UK 5.FRANCE 172 5.FRAnE172BN LITRES BILLION'

Fighting Fake News with REAL 21/3/21; If Doctors speak up they’re threatened with being de-licenced and prosecuted like Wuhan; JobKeeper and Over Payment; Rorts and Rules

War for Water: foreign investor firepower over Australian farmers in water deals – Michael West

War for Water: foreign investor firepower over Australian farmers in water deals – Michael West
Water rights, Watergate
Selling no giving our resources away for short term funds

The “corporatisation” of Australian farming continues apace. Almost 14% of agricultural land is now owned by foreign investors who, according to a ruling by the ATO, do not have to pay capital gains tax on water rights. Callum Foote reports.

War for Water: foreign investor firepower over Australian farmers in water deals – Michael West

Barnaby Joyce signed off $80m for Angus Taylor’s old company after zero was paid for same sort of water nearby – Michael West

Watergate Angus Taylor

Same water, same valuer, $80m and nought. The same type of water licences for irrigation properties near those for which the Coalition government paid $80 million in 2017 were valued at zero between 2008 and 2010, writes investigative reporter Kerry Brewster in this exclusive report.

Barnaby Joyce signed off $80m for Angus Taylor’s old company after zero was paid for same sort of water nearby – Michael West

Trump Rewrites Standards on Showerheads After Worrying About How They’ve Affected his Hair – Mother Jones

“Showerheads—you take a shower, the water doesn’t come out. You want to wash your hands, the water doesn’t come out. So what do you do?” he said during a July 16 speech at the White House. “You just stand there longer or you take a shower longer? Because my hair — I don’t know about you, but it has to be perfect. Perfect.”

via Trump Rewrites Standards on Showerheads After Worrying About How They’ve Affected his Hair – Mother Jones

Australia’s water market is excluding Indigenous people, study finds | Australia news | The Guardian

The Darling Barka river after the arrival of a flow of water from upstream in February 2020

History repeats itself and has done for over 200 years. Aborigines had less than 1% of bank loans, jobs, capital gains education health. What has changed. They even have less than 1% of the acknowledged history an and Culture of this country. They have been effectively cancelled. (ODT)

Aboriginal people hold less than 1% of all water licences, a form of dispossession that needs urgent redress, researchers say

via Australia’s water market is excluding Indigenous people, study finds | Australia news | The Guardian

Government to spend millions buying water from company it already paid $80m | Australia news | The Guardian

The dry Narran river outside the town of Walgett in north-west NSW.

The Angus Taylor Plan of Economic Management (ODT)

via Government to spend millions buying water from company it already paid $80m | Australia news | The Guardian

Old Dog Thoughts- How many things can they get wrong?

Water Barons: Gina Rinehart pitches cattle against sawfish – Michael West

Rinehart’s climate change denialism is well known, and she is reportedly and unsurprisingly amongst those voices that argue that 99% of the Fitzroy River’s water is wasted because it flows into the Indian Ocean.

Meanwhile, at the time of writing, Australia was experiencing catastrophic fire conditions across the Eastern seaboard. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the 11 November 2019 was the first day on record that no rain fell anywhere across the entire expanse of this vast continent. The north of Australia, like the rest of the country, is in the grip of drought.

via Water Barons: Gina Rinehart pitches cattle against sawfish – Michael West

Declaring a water emergency means putting people before profit – Michael West

Declaring a water emergency means putting people before profit

The current drought in Eastern Australia has focused the attention of all Australians on water but effective policy responses are missing in action. Isn’t it time to call it a water emergency? Quentin Grafton and John Williams report.

via Declaring a water emergency means putting people before profit – Michael West

Old Dog Thoughts- Why is an increasingly stingy country declared generous?

Australia  has been ranked among the world's most generous nations

Fighting Fake News with REAL; 20/10/19 Charity and Statistics; Water Water Everywhere but not…; Political Prisoner; Spanish Riots; ABC Head and Shoulders above the rest;

As rivers and dams dry up, groundwater emerges as new battleground in fight for water – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A man in a blue collared shirt and a cap sits in a buggy with grass in the background.

“To us, this inevitably means fruit and nut crops.”  1kg of almonds takes 860 liters of water to grow (ODT)

And big corporations are among those trying to cash in on it.

In farming country just north of Shepparton in northern Victoria, multi-million dollar agricultural investment corporation goFarm is buying up properties all over the district.

Documents obtained by the ABC from The Weekly Times show the company wants to control at least half of the Katunga Deep Lead Aquifer, an important groundwater resource for local farmers.

via As rivers and dams dry up, groundwater emerges as new battleground in fight for water – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Coalmine would take 3.3bn litres of water a year from Sydney catchment, agency warns | Australia news | The Guardian

Cordeaux Dam in NSW

At what cost has always been the question asked but never answered by the LNP (ODT)

via Coalmine would take 3.3bn litres of water a year from Sydney catchment, agency warns | Australia news | The Guardian

Old Dog Thoughts- Real Drought denied, Real Corporate sharks denied. The water market. Coal gone and Jobs on.

https://patch.com/img/cdn/users/2346481/2013/05/raw/b702c1e942785896fdf60db983af2887.jpg

Fighting Fake News with Real, 14/7/19; Why Farmers are missing out it’s not Alexandrina it’s the drought and speculators hoarding water and milking the Gov; Australians can’t close Coal mines;

India’s water crisis: alarm bells for Australia, world economy – Michael West

India’s water crisis: alarm bells for Australia, world economy

via India’s water crisis: alarm bells for Australia, world economy – Michael West

Old Dog Thoughts- Real and Fake Journalists

Waleed Aly: From growing up in Vermont to The Project

Fighting Fake News with Real,11/7/19; Ratings and real Media; Andrew Bolt proves he’s not Waleed Aly;

Old Dog Thoughts- News Corp’s Opinionaters can’t exist without the ABC

Fighting Fake News with Real, 9/7/19; Something News Corp shys away from The Israel Lobby is HUGE and worldwide; Water Water everywhere but not a drop to drink;

David Pope: The Canberra Times editorial cartoonist’s latest work

David Pope: The Canberra Times editorial cartoonist’s latest work

Cotton grower Anthony Barlow pleads guilty to illegal pumping of Murray Darling water – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Cotton growing in a field.

A cotton farmer has pleaded guilty to illegally pumping water from the Murray-Darling Basin, after he was charged following an ABC Four Corners investigation.

via Cotton grower Anthony Barlow pleads guilty to illegal pumping of Murray Darling water – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Indian Scientist Make 6.3M Liters of Drinking Water a Day From Sea Water | MRCTV

Indian Scientist Make 6.3M Liters of Drinking Water a Day From Sea Water | MRCTV

Coca-Cola And Nestlé To Privatize The Largest Reserve Of Water In South America

 

 

Coca-Cola And Nestlé To Privatize The Largest Reserve Of Water In South America

Research Exposes $16 Billion Bottled Water Industry’s Predatory Marketing Practices

Fake News this is Fake

The industry spends billions of dollars per year convincing Americans that bottled water is safer than tap—even though more than two-thirds of the product comes from municipal water sources

via Research Exposes $16 Billion Bottled Water Industry’s Predatory Marketing Practices

The New “Water Barons”: Wall Street Mega-Banks are Buying up the World’s Water | Global Research – Centre for Research on Globalization

Source: The New “Water Barons”: Wall Street Mega-Banks are Buying up the World’s Water | Global Research – Centre for Research on Globalization

Militarized Police Turn Peaceful Native American Protest Into a War Zone

The situation is escalating quickly.

Source: Militarized Police Turn Peaceful Native American Protest Into a War Zone

Choice and Truth: Nestle Continues Stealing World’s Water During Drought

Source: Choice and Truth: Nestle Continues Stealing World’s Water During Drought

Choice and Truth: Nestle CEO: Water Is Not A Human Right, Should Be Privatized

Source: Choice and Truth: Nestle CEO: Water Is Not A Human Right, Should Be Privatized

Using stolen water to irrigate stolen land | +972 Magazine

Settlers are trying to spin water shortages as a problem that affects both Palestinians and Jews in the same manner. That couldn’t be further from the truth. By Dror Etkes The recent reports on water crisis in Palestinian areas of the West Bank were accompanied by a story of another water shortage: this time in Israeli settlements. Let’s get one thing straight — there has never been a “water shortage” in the settlements. When settlers open up the tap at home or in their garden, the amount and quality of the water is identical to that which comes out in…

Source: Using stolen water to irrigate stolen land | +972 Magazine

4 Billion People at Risk as ‘Water Table Dropping All Over the World’ | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

A new analysis reveals that global water scarcity is a far greater problem than previously thought, affecting 4 billion people—two-thirds of the world’s population—and will be “one of the most difficult and important challenges of this century.”

Source: 4 Billion People at Risk as ‘Water Table Dropping All Over the World’ | Common Dreams | Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community

PepsiCo’s Bottled ‘Tap’ Water 2000 Times the Cost of a Gallon of Gas AnonHQ

According to Business Insider, the bottled water industry “grossed a total of $11.8 billion on 9.7 billion gallons [of water] in 2012…” equivalent to 2,000 times the cost of tap water per gallon and the regular cost of gasoline. PepsiCo’s Aquafina brand was discovered to …

Source: PepsiCo’s Bottled ‘Tap’ Water 2000 Times the Cost of a Gallon of Gas AnonHQ

Few people realize the food they eat makes up 2/3 of our total water footprint. Credit: Behance Read More: http://www.trueactivist.com/how-much-water-do-you-eat-interesting-infographic-breaks-it-down/

Credit: Behance

How Much Water Do You Eat? Interesting Infographic Breaks It Down

Credit: GRACE Communications

Australia May Stop Providing Water and Power to Remote Aboriginal Communities | VICE News

Australia May Stop Providing Water and Power to Remote Aboriginal Communities | VICE News.

Australia’s Shame

 

Ten weeks dry: water is still a privilege, not a right, in Indigenous Australia

The Utopia homelands was once one of the healthiest Indigenous communities. Now it’s plagued by scabies because of water shortages. And that’s just the beginning

utopia
21-year-old Naronda William Loy with her one-year-old daughter Karlishia Raggatt, at their home in Mosquito Bore, Utopia, in 2011. Photograph: AAP

Two weeks ago, reports emerged that the Utopia Homelands, a Northern Territory Indigenous community put in the spotlight by John Pilger’s recent film, was suffering acute water shortages after a bore at Amengernternenh collapsed during council maintenance works. The Urapuntja health service and several communities have had little to no access to water and sanitation for 10 whole weeks. Fifty kids have no drinking water at their school.

Australia is a wealthy country and the idea of entire communities not having proper access to clean water is unthinkable – even with the droughts we experience. That water is still considered to be a privilege and not a right for some Aboriginal communities speaks volumes about how little this country has progressed when it comes to addressing Indigenous disadvantage.