Water privatisation is the most visible and imminent danger our lives face, in an era where all common goods become targets of private speculation. The direct sale of sources and water management networks is the case of obvious privatisation, where one could imagine the consequences. Of course there’s also the less obvious case of indirect water privatisation. It is a process that has started decades ago and its consequences are so devastating for our health that harms our survival. These, both obvious and non-obvious sides of water privatisation will be the central theme of our new documentary.
The title of this documentary could be TOMORROW’S WAR, TODAY. We have five destinations in Greece: Thessaloniki, Apopigadi, Eastern Chalkidiki, Asopos river and Volos. The war on water is not a future probability, but it’s a reality familiar to some of our fellow citizens for many years now.
• Volos: 20 years of struggle against the appropriation of natural springs on Mount Pelion in order to be used for Volos’ industrial area needs. People are now opposing the decision of Volos’ Municipal Company of Water and Sewage to get Pelion’s fresh water chlorinated, while it is distributed to the city through asbestos cement water pipes.
• Asopos: Industrial activities have contaminated Asopos river and the aquifier with hexavalent chromium, which is responsible for the high level of deaths caused by cancer in the agricultural area of Asopos basin. Epidemiological evidence show an increase of cancer deaths from 6% in 1988 to 36% in 2004.
• Thessaloniki: The ongoing privatization of Thessaloniki Water and Sewage Company – the role of water multinational Suez and local contractor Aktor. The goverment is now trying to block a referendum on the privatization, promoted by both grassroot movements and the area’s municipalities.
• Apopigadi: The wind farm on top of Apopigadi mountain in Crete is not an environment-friendly investment, but a threat to local water resources and wild animals which was imposed to local people with violent police action. The investor in this case is the well-known French multinational EDF.
• Skouries: The Chalkidiki goldmines that now belong to a Canadian multinational company are responsible for the contamination of local water resources and reserves. Local people opposing the investment are now prosecuted for terrorism.
For all these and many more reasons, Nelly Psarrou along with new and old partners from her first documentary “Golfland?” returns aiming to a complete research on the most important thing of all, water. Your support and your donations are vital to complete this research, since our team does not have enough resources and at the same time we want to be independent, so we are not looking for a single producer. We ask persons and groups to support us both financially and in terms of information spreading.
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