Neighbourhood Action and Preservation Association: No Big Lake!

Things get curioser and curiouser! According to an article in the Boston Globe on 1/6/2002 by Peter H. Glieck, Director of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, and co-author of the Institute report "The New Economy of Water," plans are afoot by "Other corporations are offering to buy up bulk quantities of water from water-rich nations like Canada or Norway and ship it in tankers or huge floating bags to water-scarce regions." Next, we read in a recent issue of the Los Angeles Times that Prince al-Walid bin-Talal bin-Abdul Aziz Al-Saud of the Saudi royal family is proposing to buy a share of the agricultural business, and the water rights of that business, of Cadiz Inc., for which Councilwoman Susan Lien is the regional manager. Oil tankers now return to their ports deadhead: while shipping fresh water on the return trip may ease the balance-of-payments somewhat, can we really afford to commit the US to exporting potable water with drought looming over us, to a country whose policies toward women are the basis of some of the most infamous Talibun fatwahs, and whose development schemes are entirely the creature of the ruling family and Wahabi sect? The Canadians baulked at such a prospect. It is bad enough that Ms. Lien is conflicted between her elected role as representative of San Bernardino's Second Ward, for which she is paid little, and as a "consultant" for Cadiz, Inc., for which she is paid an undisclosed sum: now she is faced with the prospect of selling our water to Saudi Arabia! Ms. Lien, to whom are your loyalties?

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