ABOUT 'WATERPLUNDER'

The agitation waging by the local people aginst the unscrupulous water loot of Coco-cola company at Plachimada has catched the attention of the whole Globe. This book is a reminder to the world once again , which depict some of the great moments of that resistance which crossed 2000 days, through the eyes of a camera. It also ponders on the social and enviornmental shocks and impacts of pricing and privatising of drinking water.'Waterplunder' is releasing on 11.12.2009 ,Friday at 11 a.m in the Corporate office Kozhikode.In the function,Environmental Acharya Sunderlal Bahuguna will hand over the book to Mathrbhumi Managing Director M P Veerendrakumar.

Packaged

Deep desires

About My Walks...

Joined 'Mathrubhumi' as news photographer in 1993.Conducted a photopainting in 1993. Conducted a photopainting exhibition in collaboration with the painter Bhagyanathan,under the banner of SEEK(Society of Environmental Education in Kerala), in 2001. Titled 'Vishavimukta bhoomi'(poison-free earth),it depicted the misery of villagers in Kasargod District,as a result of aerial spraying of Endosulfan, the killer insecticide. The exhibition evoked tremendous response across Kerala,and was conducted in more than 400 centers and is still beign mounted in various places.
The panels promote public awareness and has won public acclaim whereever they were exhibited.Recognition came in the form of Maja Koyna National Award and Imcc Award in 2003.the picture depicting the miseries of Endosulfan victims got Silver World Medal at New York Festival 2005,in the public advertisement section.
A photo panel exhibition on the theme of water exploitation by Coca Cola and Pepsi at Palakkad in Kerala,was conducted as part of World Water Conference held at Plachimada in January 2004.The same exhibition was held at the venue of Water Festival organised by Navodhanya at Delhi Hatt, New Delhi in February 2005. 'Water Thief-Another Story of Corporate Crime' was the name of a series of photo exhibitions held in various centers in Kerala and other states, with accent on the same theme. Prepared an audio visual version of the exhibition and presented it at several centers including foriegn countries.
wife:Somaraji ; son:Tapan
Address:
Madhuraj
Chief News Photographer
Mathrubhumi Periodicals
MM Press,Kozhikode
Kerala,India-673001
Tel          : 0495-2765381/ 84/88 (O)
Mobile   : 9847141095
E-mail    : madhurajmbi@yahoo.com, waterplunder@gmail.com  

Queue

World Water Conference

Maude Barlow Writes..

This is a very important book. The fight for water justice in Plachimada caught the attention of the world and put the water rights struggle of the local people on the front burner. It also highlighted the growing tension between those who see water as a public trust and a human right and those who see it as a market commodity to be put on the open market to the highest bidder.
The world is running out of clean water. Humanity is polluting, diverting, and depleting the earth's finite water resources at a dangerous and steadily increasing rate. The abuse and displacement of water is the ground level equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions, and likely as great a cause of climate change. As a result, every day more people are living without clean water. As the ecological crisis deepens, so too does the human crisis. More children are killed by dirty water than by war, malaria, HIV/AIDS and traffic accidents together. The global water crisis has become the greatest symbol of the growing inequality in our world.
Tragically, a powerful corporate water cartel has emerged to take control of every aspect of water for its own profit. Corporations deliver drinking water and take away wastewater; corporations put massive amounts of water in plastic and sell it back to us as exorbitant prices; corporations are building sophisticated new technologies to recycle our dirty water and sell that back to us at exorbitant prices; corporations move water by massive pipelines from watersheds and aquifers to sell it to big cities and industries; and corporations buy, store and trade water on the open market like running shoes. Most importantly, corporations want governments to deregulate the water sector and allow the market to set water policy. Every day, they get closer to that goal.
It is my sincere hope that this important book will help build a movement to stop the corporate takeover of precious water supplies in India and everywhere. We have much to thank the brave people of Plachimada for. Let us hope their struggle and this book lead to true equality and water for all.
Maude Barlow
Senior UN Advisor on Water

Freezed Lives

Fingers of thirst M P Veerendrakumar

 “As soon as the earth's crust cooled enough, the rains began to fall… They fell continuously, day and night, days passing into months, into years, into centuries.” - Rachel Carson, in The Sea Around Us (1951).

Thus was born water, the basic building block of all life on Earth. No wonder that the Krishna-devotee and one of the navaratnas in Emperor Akbar's court, the sufi Rahim was moved to write this doha: “Rahiman paani raakhiyee, bin paani sab soon,” which roughly translates as “without water, there's no life.” Our human lives begin in the nourishing amniotic fluid in the womb and end with a touch of water on dying lips. To the Indigenous Australians, one of the oldest surviving races, water “is the physical manifestation of the process of creation itself, of the ancestors, and as such it is a sacred and protected element.” –

THE UN WORLD WATER DEVELOPMENT REPORT.

It is the most plentiful natural resource on the planet; covering over two-thirds of the earth. However, 97 percent is in the oceans, while only 3 percent is fresh water. Of the freshwater, only one percent is easily accessible as ground or surface water, the remains are stored in depleting glaciers and icecaps. Moreover, freshwater is not evenly distributed across land surfaces, and there are a number of heavily populated countries located in arid lands where fresh water is scarce.

Water also controls the temperature of the planet and cycles essential nutrients through the land, air, and all living forms working as a global thermostat. The flow of water through the atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere is called the hydrologic, or water cycle.

This role of temperature regulator is performed by water in living beings also. Our bodies are 65% composed of water – ranging from a high of 95.5% in saliva to 10% in teeth! In medical terms a reasonably healthy individual in ideal conditions - that is, not in the heat or cold and not exerting - can probably live for about 3 to 5 days without any water. As compared to this, most doctors agree that healthy humans can go up to eight weeks without food. We lose water through sweat, urine, feces and even breathing. This water needs to be replaced in order for our organs to continue to work properly. In severe heat, an adult can lose as much as 1.5 liters of water through sweat alone. The main risk without water in is that body temperature will continue to rise leading to heat stroke. Clean water is also the cheapest and single most important medicine in the world.

The politics of water will turn vicious as the world heads for 'water bankruptcy', with corporates identifying it as a hot ticket for investment, overtaking even oil. Pramoedya Ananta Toer so incandescently captures this spirit of predatory capital in his classic exposé of colonialism in Child of All Nations (1980): “…what people call capital is more than just money…Everything must be turned into a source of profit. And in the towns of Europe and America, from every mouthful of water. Maybe in the future they will take profits too from each cubic inch of air we breathe.”

It is in such a historical context that an effort, like Madhuraj's gains abiding relevance, and Mathrubhumi took up the initiative to publish it. Like other sensitive people, he too has been influenced by the saga of struggle waged by the valiant indigenous peoples, supported by political parties also, of Plachimada against turbo capitalism in the form of cola. My good friend, Maude Barlow, who has written the preface was gracious enough to attend the World Water Conference held there in 2004.

I commend this labour of love to all caring souls, with these lines by Namdeo Dhasal, translated from Marathi -Paani- by Dilip Chitre, highlighting the 'exclusionist' nature of water regime in our country:

“The fingers of thirst wither away while probing for edible beans

And man seeks compassion in a devastated body

The earth's mouth opens wide as a begging bowl

What a marvellous sight it is to watch your secular regimes wagging their tail!

You will draw water upstream

And we downstream

Bravo! Bravo! How you teach chaturvarnya even to the water in your sanctified style!”

M P Veerendra Kumar (Member of Parliament)

Camp: Tumkur, Karnataka March 12, 2009