Cities, nearly all in the Southern hemisphere are faced with the double jeopardy of drinking water shortage as in Kabul, Jakarta and Sao Paulo and/or catastrophic flooding. The metropolitan area of Guadalajara with more than five million people that is also Mexico’s largest industrial and manufacturing centre located in the western state of Jalisco within the larger Lerma-Santiago watershed, one of Mexico’s most polluted river systems and a region long burdened by wastewater, industrial pollution and rapid urban growth. has seen large scale street protests in recent days and weeks on the issue of polluted drinking water.. These have inensified scrutiny of water management across Mexico, where many major cities struggle with water quality and reliability amid aging infrastructure, pollution, climate change and mounting pressure on limited resources. Conversely in recent weeks Bangkok, capital of Thailand recovering from heavy rain flooding that saw the destruction of homes and infrastructure was then hit by a second wave. Some days later, Santiago, capital city of Chile experienced both a tornado and similar flooding, a consequence of the vicious circle created by climate change and its impact on El Nino.
Jalisco’s Santiago river overflows with white foam from the bottom-feeder industries of international capital that are liable to cut corners to survive. Meanwhile the Mexican government is pushing for “Sustainable Fracking” around the country, reminding us of betting shops where one is told to “gamble responsibly”. Nahua community resistance talks of how transnational mining and energy corporations treat Indigenous and farmer communities as “expendable obstacles.”, T hey are facing an accelerated and voracious grab for energy and minerals exemplified by , Canada’s Silverco Mining announcing that it will re-open its Cusihuiriachi silver mine even while Mexico is already the major silver producer globally, and when its consequences are known known water pollution, and excessive water and electricity consumption, .
A chemical spill allegedly linked to Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), owned by the British-based Vedanta Resources, has occurred in Zambia’s Copperbelt Province, where communities depend on the Kafue River for water. The people who live there report discoloured water and dead fish and allege that chemical discharges occur regularly, resulting in health risks to the community. The government says that the spill may have resulted from a leaking pipe and an overflowing pollution-control dam at KCM’s facilities. KCM denied responsibility but then they refused to admit liability back in 2008 even while paying compensation for alleged harm from toxic discharges Authorities have ordered an assessment of the mine’s pollution infrastructure and are considering penalties. Local response is that it’s a bit late in the day where repeat offenders are concerned. The capitalist world’s hi-tech insatiable demand for copper however demands the cutting of corners where labour and environmental rights are concerned.
Resistances to the grab of land and water for Data Centres are taking place in many different parts of the world from Mumbai to Amsterdam and Arizona and many areas of land still inhabited by indigenous peoples. These resource-grabbing Centres are being built or attempted at a fierce pace to service corporate capital’s AI fantasies. In response tech capital’s PR department have made much of new technologies that significantly cut the amount of water needed to cool hot running servers often in drought-stressed places like Arizona in the USA. These “solutions” push this essential resource grab down the line to the “indirect” massive water usage to generate the electricity with the steam needed for the turbines of both fossil-fuel and nuclear powered plant, that AI requires.