Last Sunday 400,000 people (organisers’ estimate; the police estimated 150,000) 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 Culture of Water which would encourage more respect for water as precious, scarce resource. The privatisation 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 drinkable water.

Water privatisation has already become a major problem in many parts of the world. In Durban, South Africa, water privatisation led to more than 200 deaths from cholera and typhoid after water service was stopped to poor neighbourhoods. In 1999, Bolivia privatised its water resources following a mandate by the World Bank. After prices were nearly doubled, thousands of people took to the streets in protest. After fierce government repression which left one dead and hundreds injured, the Bolivian government was forced to revoke the privatisation and defy the World Bank order – in a truly inspiring example of the power people have to reverse the trend of neoliberal capitalism.

Yesterday's demonstration in Barcelona showed the massive opposition to the PHN and water privatisation in this region. Hundreds of thousands of 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 - one group called "somos l*s aguas", representing the "River of Life," walked through the crowd wearing nothing but blue body paint.

Police presence was minimal – just a few police cars were in side streets - and they seemed anxious not to anger the huge crowd. There were no arrests.

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