Machete-wielding farmers cut off water to Acapulco

[phantom power]

LA GARRAPATA, Mexico -- Hundreds of machete-carrying farmers opposed to a hydroelectric dam project briefly seized a pumping plant, cutting off much of the water supply to Acapulco just days before tourists flock to the Pacific resort for their Easter vacations.

The protesters ended a two-day blockade of water from the Papagayo River late Wednesday that had threatened to plunge the city of 1 million into a crisis.

They vowed, however, to continue fighting government plans for the $1 billion dam on the waterway.

''We wanted the people of Acapulco to see what it's like to go without water for two days, three days or more,'' said protest leader Marco Suastegui, referring to the water shortages that protesters fear will dry up their farms and fisheries if the dam is built.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-dam07.html

[Canuckistanian]

1. And so began the Great Water Wars....

This has the potential to be worse than wars for oil.

[NNadir]

2. Someone here started a thread explaining that Dafur is a water war.

I can't remember the name of the thread, but it was probably one of Hatrack's.

[Canuckistanian]

3. I heard a guy from Australia on the radio

He said that the massive droughts in Australia were thought to be caused by overgrazing and poor land management.

Turns out that unusual rainfall patterns and drier humidity overall were the problem.

Now, how could that happen, I wonder?

[Odin2005]

4. Conservationist Tim Flannery, right?

He talks about the influence of drought on causing Darfur in his new book The Weather Makers.