Bija Vidyapeeth: Centre for Learning
Living Waters
March 7- 22, 2003
with Ricardo Petralla, Oscar and Marcela Olivera, and Dr. Vandana Shiva
2003 has been declared by the UN as the year of Fresh Water. As fresh water becomes scarcer, village women are walking longer distances to fetch water for their families, city dwellers are paying more and getting poorer quality water, and a handful of companies are looking to cash in on the new “blue gold.”
Around the world, water is being privatized. What was once seen as a commonly held resource, to be managed by communities and governments for the public good, is fast being redefined as a commodity to be managed “market forces.”
In Bolivia efforts by the Bechtel Corporation and the World Bank to privatize the water supply led to 200% increases in the price of water and resulted in protests, strikes, and riots. In Kerela, southern India, communities are dependant on bottled water as the Coca-cola bottling plant has depleted all the ground water for miles. The French company Suez has even secured a contract to take 685 million litres of water a day from the holy Ganges river.
Will water stay a commons, for communities to conserve, share, and sustain
as a resource,
or will water become a commodity to be appropriated, exploited, and controlled?
Bija Vidyapeeth invites you to participate in a course designed to explore this question with a set of faculty who are on the forefront of the global movement to safeguard water.
The Course
The course will begin on the Bija Vidyapeeth campus, set on Navdanya’s
organic farm (a few kilometers outside of Dehra Dun, Uttaranchal, India).
Faculty and participants will explore the ecological and social impact
of water management from a local, national, and global perspective. The
class then takes part in the “Ganga Yatra” traveling down
the Ganges, starting close to the origins of the river, we will stop at
the site of the controversial Thehri dam, and the holy cities of Rishikesh
and Haridwar. The course will conclude in Delhi, with an optional component
of 2 days in Varanasi to visit groups doing pioneering river-cleaning
work.
Faculty
For more details
Coordinator, Bija Vidyapeeth
A-60, Hauz Khas,
New Delhi, India
Tel: 91 11 26561868, 26562093
Fax: 91 11 26562093
bijavidyapeeth@vsnl.net
www.bijavidyapeeth.org
