Yesterday more than 200,000 people gathered on the streets of Barcelona to demonstrate their opposition to the Plan Hidrológico Nacional (National Hydrological Plan), which was adopted by the Spanish government in June 2001. The plan calls for the building of 120 new dams and would also redirect the flow of the Ebro River. These projects would lead to the destruction of many designated nature conservation areas, including the Ebro Delta, and would have a detrimental effect on much of the plant and wildlife that is native to the area.

Although the plan was developed to address water shortages in parts of Spain, opponents argue that the plan only
encourages wasteful use of water, and is not a sustainable solution. They call for a decrease in water usage,especially by industry and public services which waste large amounts of water by failing to clean and reuse waste water.

The cost of all Plan Hidrológico Nacional (PHN) projects will total more than 23 billion Euro ($20 billion USD), most
of which will be passed on to those who purchase the water, both industry/commercial users and household consumers.

A worldwide movement is growing for a "New Water Culture" which would encourage more respect for water as a non-replaceable resource. The privatization of water places control of this important resource in the hands of large
corporations, which care little about whether the public has access to safe, potable water.

Water privatazation has already become a major problem in many parts of the world. In Durban, South Africa, water
privatazation led to more than 200 deaths from cholera and typhoid after water service was stopped to poor neighborhoods. In 1999, Bolivia privatized its water resources following a mandate by the World Bank. After prices were nearly doubled, thousands of people took to the streets in protests which left one dead and hundreds injured.
The Bolivian government was forced to revoke the privatization.

Yesterday's demonstration in Barcelona showed the massive opposition to the PHN and water privatization in this region. More than 200,000 people, mostly from the Catalonia and Aragón regions, marched from the Plaça de Catalunya to the Barcelona Cathedral, where the protest ended with a rally on the steps of the Cathedral.

The crowd was filled with red and yellow Catalonia flags (the region has a strong separatist movement), and thousands of people wore bright red and yellow caps with the words "trasvase no" ("trasvase" means redirection, referring to the plan to redirect the flow of the Ebro). Unions and other organizations came in large groups, bringing banners and costumes to attract attention. One group, representing the "River of Life," walked through the crowd wearing nothing but blue body paint.