In the midst of California’s worst drought in recorded history, the biggest ocean desalination plant in the western hemisphere opened in Southern California on Dec. 14, costing nearly $1 billion. And the state is set to invest millions more in desalination technology.
That technology, however, was developed by U.S. taxpayer-funded support of Israeli policies, which for decades have and continue to dispossess Palestinians from their land and livelihoods.
These policies have likewise been inflicted on rural communities throughout America, from California to nations south of the U.S.-Mexico border, to profit the large-scale water and utility engineering firm, CDM Smith, and other similar corporations. However, we are at a moment where we can face these facts and learn alternatives to privatization from the endurance of indigenous communities and cooperative movements.
In October of 2002, the Imperial Irrigation District began water transfers to the San Diego County Water Authority. Proponents of the transfers contended that agricultural practices in Imperial Valley were “inefficient” and that diverting water allotted for Imperial Valley from the Colorado River was needed to provide for San Diego’s growing suburban population. A recent report from the SDCWA reveals that a Joint Powers Authority between San Diego and Imperial Valley was assigned to determine the allocations of funds related to the efforts. The report also acknowledges that fields in Imperial Valley are allowed to remain idle for 15 years. That period ends in 2018.
Three years ago, the National Latino Research Center issued a report “Agua y Salud,” citing findings that potable water is not readily available to a majority of the valley’s rural population. Residents, most of whom are Latino and immigrants, are required to purchase delivered drinking water from one of three approved vendors; this is required in an area where 21 percent of people are unemployed. The recently completed Carlsbad desalination plant in San Diego County is meant to supplement the area’s water needs. The primary partner for construction of this plant is CDM Smith. CDM Smith won an award in 2014 for its San Diego Water Plan. They also have operations in most states in the US, as well as the West Bank and El Salvador.
Since the Oslo I Accord in 1993, Israel has been intentionally diverting water from aquifers in the West Bank to meet the consumption needs of Israelis. Israel has allotted less than one-quarter of the per person amount to Palestinians and has required Palestinians to purchase a large percent of their water from Israel, despite the fact that the water they are purchasing comes from sources within the West Bank.
One wonders how much of this award-winning plan for San Diego was taken from CDM Smith’s experience in Palestine, and what that portends for the future. The construction of Israel’s “security barrier” was intentionally designed to encompass settlements located above or near the major aquifer sites in the West Bank. Palestinians are required to obtain permits from Israeli authorities in order to access indigenous sources. Additionally, Palestinians are permitted no access to waters from the Jordan Valley. Throughout the process, CDM Smith has been operating water facilities throughout the West Bank and Gaza. As part of Israel’s assault on Gaza last summer, the only water treatment plant serving Palestinians was destroyed. A cursory look of the company’s site reveals that as of November, CDM Smith has several new job openings available in the West Bank and Gaza.
Israel has been able to develop desalination technology that is considered to be pioneering in the world. This is the very same technology it is now trying to export to California and CDM Smith is contracting to profit from. This technology came at the cost of an entire nation’s infrastructure and access to water, not to mention the impact it has had on Palestinian agriculture alongside the Israeli policies of destroying Palestinian land and industry.
One cannot overlook the manner in which agricultural land in Imperial Valley was designated to lie fallow in order to provide for San Diego’s urban development. A similar process seems to be underway here in San Francisco, as water transfers are included in the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency’s long-range plan, a plan also developed by CDM Smith, and a desalination plant is currently being proposed for Santa Clara County.
South of California’s borders, indigenous and campesino communities all over Latin America are fighting to maintain access to water sources that are being purchased by private companies, ostensibly to provide water and hydroelectric needs to developing urban areas. In Honduras, indigenous communities are fighting to prevent the privatization of the Gualcarque and Blanco Rivers, as well as construction of a hydroelectric facility in the Aguan Valley.
In addition to organizing against corrupt governments and corporate exploitation, many communities have long maintained an alternative way of life that sees access to water as a human right, not as something to be privatized and apportioned for money. The current corporatized public utilities model in use by most California municipalities, including San Francisco, is contrary to community-based initiatives and cooperative movements that have been underway in the Bay Area for decades.
In addition, it continues to disrespect, oppress and negate the indigenous communities of this land and openly and blatantly conspire with the dispossession and murder of indigenous communities throughout the planet. Our future survival and capacity to thrive is not possible merely with “conservation” of the current system that permits itself to be in competition over the “cost to the consumer.” We need to implement a cooperative water access system that refuses to put a price on our rights and the rights of the earth.
Practically speaking, we need to boycott CDM Smith and other water privatization companies globally and locally. This also means looking at private companies like PG&E, as well as the corporatized structures of the California Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco and throughout the state. A cursory look at the list of commissioners appointed by the governor to these commissions reveals a selection of profit-driven, business-experienced interests. Capacity to maximize profit is obviously the guiding factor as opposed to understanding the dynamics of how communities access and conserve water on a day-to-day basis. Why are no farmers, small business owners, teachers and daycare center operators, medical and public health professionals, representatives of indigenous communities, or committed conservationists a part of these commissions?
We need to assure that any future or persisting federal, state and municipal level representatives understand the importance of community involvement in selection of oversight regarding water and utilities operations.