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Thursday, April 29, 2010

[ALOCHONA] The Water Cure



The Water Cure: An interview with Dr. Batmanghelidj

A NaturalNews Special Report by Mike Adams

http://www.naturalnews.com/Report_water_cure_0.html

Physicians rarely promote the curative properties of H2O, but Dr. Batmanghelidj, M.D. has studied water's effect on the human body and has found it to be one of the best pain relievers and preventative therapies in existence. I was one of the last people to interview the late Dr. Batmanghelidj, and I listened in awe as he shared his research and stories about "The Healing Power of Water."

In a fascinating one-hour phone conversation, Dr. B. shares:

• Which common ailments and "diseases" are actually caused by dehydration

• Why many doctors use water-regulating antihistamines to alleviate pain

• How Dr. Batmanghelidj unintentionally discovered water's healing properties

• Why most people are chronically dehydrated and suffer from symptoms of dehydration that are labeled "diseases"

• Which ingredients in soft drinks deplete the body's water reserves

• Why thirst is not a reliable indicator of dehydration

• Why the body produces cholesterol and how water keeps it in balance

• Why Dr. Batmanghelidj believes the public is being mislead about AIDS

• How dehydration impairs mental functioning

• Why some organizations want to withhold alternative health information from the public

• How lack of water causes depression

• Why popular beverages are no substitute for water

• How dehydration causes the vascular system to constrict, leading to hypertension

• How to recognize signs that your body is starting to dehydrate

• Why restaurants push you to drink disease-promoting soft drinks

• Why and how water effectively treats pain and inflammation

Discovery of the water cure

Mike: Welcome everyone, this is Mike Adams with Truth Publishing, and today I'm very excited to be welcoming Dr. Batmanghelidj, author of Water For Health, For Healing, For Life. Welcome, Dr. Batmanghelidj.

Dr. B: Thank you very much for inviting me to be on the air with you and giving me the opportunity of sharing my thoughts on the future of medicine in this country.

Mike: I think there are many, many people who have read your books. People are intrigued by the idea that water can be a therapy, a healing substance for the human body. What is it about water? How did you first become aware of these healing properties of water?

Dr. B: Well, it's very bizarre. As you know, I'm a regular doctor, an M.D. I had the honor and the privilege of being selected as one of the house doctors, and I had the extreme honor of being one of the last students of Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of penicillin. I mention his name so that you know I was immersed in medical school and research. And some years later, I had to give two glasses of water to a person who was doubled up in abdominal pain from his disease, because I had no other medication to give him at that moment. And he was in excruciating pain, and water performed miraculous relief for him. It gave him relief -- within three minutes his pain diminished, and within eight minutes it disappeared completely, whereas he was doubled up eight minutes before and he couldn't even walk, he completely recovered from that situation. And he started beaming from ear to ear, very happy, asked me what happens if the pain comes back? I said, "Well, drink more water." Then I decided to instruct him to drink two glasses of water every three hours. Which he did, and that was the end of his ulcer pains for the rest of the duration that he was with me.

Mike: And from that episode then, what happened next?

Dr. B: That woke me up, because in medical school I'd never heard that water could cure pain, that kind of pain, in fact. And so I had the occasion to test water as a medication in subsequently over 3,000 similar cases. And water proved every time to be an effective medication. I came away from that experience with the understanding that these people were all thirsty, and that thirst in the body can manifest itself in the form of abdominal pain to the level that the person can even become semi-conscious, because that's the experience I had. And water picks them up every time.

So when I came to America in 1982, I went to the University of Pennsylvania, where I was invited to continue my research, and did research in the pain-relieving properties of water. I asked myself, why does the pharmaceutical industry insist on using antihistamines for this kind of pain medication? So I started researching the role of histamine in the body, and the answer was there -- histamine is a neurotransmitter in charge of water regulation and the drought management programs of the body. When it manifests pain, in fact, it is indicating dehydration.

So, the body does manifest dehydration in the form of pain. Now, depending on where dehydration is settled, you feel pain there. Very simple, and I presented this concept at the international conference as the guest lecturer of a conference on cancer, explaining that the human body manifests dehydration by producing pain, and pain is a sign of water shortage in the body, and water shortage is actually the background to most of the health problems in our society.

Because if you look at what the pharmaceutical industry is doing, they're producing so many different antihistamines as medication. Antidepressant drugs are antihistamines, pain medication are antihistamines, other medications are directly and indirectly antihistamines. So, that is when my work was published, the scientific secretariat of the 3rd Interscience Board Conference of Inflammation invited me to make this presentation on histamine at their conference in 1989, in Monte Carlo. And I did that, and so it became a regular understanding that histamine is a water regulator in the body. But unfortunately, this information is not reaching the public through the medical community because it's not a money-maker.

So that's when I began to consider writing for the public, so that the public could become aware of the problem directly without the interference of a doctor, and that's how I have generated all my medical information for the public. Of course, I have published extensively for the scientific community, but no one is picking up. In fact, the NIH, the Office of Alternative Medicine, had its first conference when the office was created, and I was asked to make my presentation, but when the proceedings of the conference came out, my presentation was censored after the proceedings. So there is a movement afoot within the NIH group of people to keep a closed lid on my information so that it doesn't get out, because obviously they are more in favor of the drug industry, because it is now obvious that they are getting paid by them.

Mike: I think it is, first of all, that is an amazing account of what has been happening, and I think it is fair to say, too, that the pharmaceutical industry and organized medicine in general, really doesn't want to promote anything that is free or near-free to the average patient. Sunlight is available at no charge, water is available at nearly no charge -- would you agree that their thinking is if people can cure their diseases, and achieve a high state of health on their own with these free substances, then that diminishes their profits and their importance?

Dr. B: Absolutely. That's why I've created an organization now called National Association for Honesty in Medicine. Because I think it's totally dishonest, in fact, criminal, to treat a person who is just thirsty, and give them toxic medication so that he gets sick and dies earlier than normal.

Mike: Can you give out the web address to that organization, by the way?

Dr. B: My website is
http://www.watercure.com -- it gives you the option of going to one site or the other -- either Water Cure.com, or you can go the National Association for Honesty in Medicine. Or you can go to the information side of my website, http://www.watercure.com, because I have posted all of my scientific articles on dehydration on the website, and lots of other free information that people can have.

AIDS and the Pharmaceutical Industry

Mike: I want to applaud what I call your scientific curiosity. I think this is the kind of curiosity that has been lost in so much of western medicine, where a true scientist observes nature and observes the interaction between humans and nature, and remains curious and open and to all possibilities, and then forms conclusions after rigorous testing, and I think so much of modern science has drawn erroneous conclusions without really remaining open-minded...

Dr B: Yes, one of the worst ones is AIDS. Because everyone assumes that AIDS is actually a viral disease, which is a fraudulent statement by those people who presented it, because the human body is the product of many, many years of having fought various viral diseases, and has survived. Smallpox, polio, measles, and all the other viruses that can kill very easily, and the body has an ability to mount a defense system against these hot viruses, viruses that actually very quickly can kill. But having survived those, how is it possible that the slow virus would kill us in the name of AIDS? I can't understand it.

I have researched this topic extensively, and I have shown in fact that AIDS is a metabolic problem, when the body begins to cannibalize its own tissue because of certain missing elements in the raw materials that it receives through food or beverages, and the body of a person who gets AIDS, actually, is short of quite a number of building block amino acids. They're short of tyrosine, they're short of methionine, cysteine, they're short of histidine, and they've got a whole lot of others in excess. So how can we expect a body that depends on the other amino acids to survive?

Mike: Once again we see AIDS is a huge industry for the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. B: Well, of course it is, and the whole entire existence of the pharmaceutical industry is based on presentation of false science, and advertising this false science and drumming it into the minds of gullible people who have no curiosity to find out why that is so.

Cholesterol

Dr. B: Another false science is the question of cholesterol. Cholesterol is one of the most essential elements in the survival of the human body. When the body begins to make more cholesterol, it has a reason to do that. It is certainly not to block the arteries of the heart, because we measure the level of cholesterol in the body in the blood we take out of the veins of the body, and nowhere in the history of medicine is there recorded one single case of cholesterol ever having blocked the veins of the body.

So, it is not the stickiness of the cholesterol that is the problem, which the drug industry is drumming it into the minds of people -- cholesterol is sticky, reduce it otherwise you will have blockage of your arteries, which is all nonsense. Cholesterol is actually saving the lives of people, because cholesterol is a bandage, a waterproof bandage that the body has designed. When the blood becomes concentrated and acidic, and is being rushed through constricted arteries or capillaries, in dehydration, then abrasions and tears are produced in the arterial system, naturally, in the capillaries of the heart first.

Now if cholesterol wasn't there to cover up the tear and abrasions, blood would get under the membrane and peel it off and that person would be dead instantly. Cholesterol is actually an interim lifesaver, giving the body time to recover from its problems. We never understood this. We are knee-jerk doctors. We think that something's up, bring it down, if something's down, bring it up. We don't ask questions why is it down or why is it up?

Mike: And the pharmaceutical companies know that treating cholesterol is a huge industry...

Dr. B: It's a ten-billion dollar industry. Now there is a report that actually these statins, cholesterol-lowering drugs produce amnesia. In other words, the brain totally loses track of what it's doing, and it is published by a doctor who is an eminent doctor. He was a flight surgeon, he is a researcher at NASA. And he knows what he's talking about. He had the problem himself.

Mike: I just wanted to comment on the number of side effects that have been recorded as side effects from using statin drugs. Some people have extreme muscular pain, that amnesia you mentioned seems to be very common, and yet a study just came out, I saw it this morning, talking about how blueberries have phytonutrients that are shown to lower so-called fatty cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, more powerfully than statin drugs.

Dr. B: It's interesting, because you see, the body manufactures cholesterol as an emergency situation, when it raises the level of its production. Its normal rate of production is of course is to create membranes for the cell membranes and brain cells and nerve insulation and of course the hormones of the body, vitamin D for the body. So these are the essential components that cholesterol makes in the body. We should never interfere with cholesterol without knowing why the body has starting raising its level.
No substitute for water

Mike: I have a question for you on water -- a lot of people think that they are hydrating themselves when they consume soft drinks or milk or Gatorade or all these other liquid beverages…

Dr. B: Gatorade is possibly okay, but Gatorade has sugar in it, and it's not particularly good for people who might even get hypoglycemic, or might induce insulin secretion, and that insulin secretion will produce more hunger and they overeat. But as a temporary sport drink, it's okay when you're in the middle of a golf game to drink a Gatorade. It immediately gives you a bit of the minerals that you probably will have lost sweating.

But nothing substitutes for water -- not a thing. No drink -- no coffee, no tea, no alcoholic beverages. Not even fruit juices. Each one of them has its own agenda. Your body is used to a fluid that has no agenda, because the body depends on the freedom of that fluid, water, because there are two kinds of water in the body. There is already occupied and engaged water, which is no good for new function. The body needs new water, or free water, to perform new functions. Now, when you give them sugar containing beverages, or caffeine containing beverages, both sugar and caffeine have their own chemical agenda in the body. They defeat the purpose of the need for water.

Mike: You're also talking about soft drinks here…

Dr. B: I'm talking about soft drinks, I'm talking about sodas, I'm talking about caffeine containing coffee or tea. I'm also talking about alcohol, because alcohol actually stops the emergency water supply systems to the important cells, such as the brain cells. In the reverse osmosis process your body filters and injects water into the cells, and this is what I call reverse osmosis. And it has to raise the blood pressure for that in order to overcome the osmotic pull of water out of the cells, and reinject water into the cells. That's why we develop high-blood pressure in dehydration. And this process of reverse osmosis is stopped by alcohol. It stops the filter system.

Chronic Disease Caused by Lack of Water

Mike: Let me start this next section by asking you about the correlation between water consumption and chronic disease. There are many diseases you mention in your books that are related to dehydration. I wonder if you can give our readers a brief of what the major diseases are and why they are aggravated or promoted by chronic dehydration.

Dr. B: Certainly, Mike. I have written a book called Water Cures and Drugs Kill. It's a book that explains why dehydration is the cause of pain and disease, and how the pharmaceutical industry has camouflaged this information or covered it up and instead of letting people drink water, it advertises the use of their products, which actually do kill. Because recent figures have shown that prescription medications, when used according to the instruction of doctors, nonetheless kill over 106,000 people, and make 2 million people sicker than before taking the medication. And then there is another group who die from faulty prescriptions, incorrect prescriptions.

So between them, about 250,000 people die from drug-related problems, medication-related problems. This makes the drugs the use of drugs the number three killer processes in the country -- protected and licensed killer process. After heart disease, which kills about seven or eight hundred thousand, cancer which kills about 500,000, drugs kill 250,000 people.

Mike: So it's fair to say that pharmaceuticals, as packaged by modern medicine, are the third leading cause of death in this country.

Dr. B: Absolutely, and they are useless, because most of the medication they are using is to cover up symptoms and signs and complications of dehydration in the human body. The human body manifests dehydration by a series of symptoms and signs, perceptive symptoms of dehydration -- in other words, brain senses dehydration, or tiredness when you haven't done a good day's work, or first thing in the morning when you want to get up out of bed and you're tired, you can't get up -- that is a sign of dehydration. Then anger, quick reaction, depression, these are all signs of dehydration, when the brain has very little energy from hydroelectricity to cope with the information or take action. These are some of the perceptive signs of dehydration. Then the body has its drought management program, which are allergies, hypertension, diabetes, and also immune diseases.

The link between dehydration and asthma

Mike: I'd like you to elaborate a little more on asthma, and the idea that the body is managing its water supply deliberately in a way that produces symptoms that are called asthma.

Dr. B: Yes, well you see, drought management means that you have to clog the holes where water is lost from the body. Water is the most precious commodity in the interior of your body, and when not enough is coming in and more is being lost, this is a no-no situation for your body. The intelligence behind the design of the body has it such that a drought management program will kick in, and then allergies are a sign of dehydration because the system that regulates water balance of the body suppresses the immune system, because it's an energy-consuming situation. Then you get asthma.

You see, we lose about a quart of water through breathing every day. It is actually the surface tension in the alveoli of the lungs that produces contraction of these tiny membranes, and air is pushed out. And in the process, that water will leave with the air that is leaving. So you lose about a quart of water in breathing. We need to replenish that. When we don't replenish it, the body tightens up the bronchials and plugs up the holes and we call this reduced air flow in the lungs because of dehydration, we've labeled it as asthma.

Mike: Right. I've always been amazed that the willingness of modern medicine or western medicine to come up with these complicated sounding labels or names for diseases that should really have simpler names.

Dr. B: Jargon peddling is the way of commercial medicine. Sick-care system survives and thrives on pushing these jargons into the minds of the people, because people don't understand what these jargons, they hear them and they don't associate with anything in the body, but associate them with those jargons of fear that are drummed in the minds of people.

Now, children, there are 17 million children in America, probably more because the numbers rise every year, who have asthma, and the reason is, at the same time, children have been consuming more and more sodas. Three year olds to five year olds have been consuming three times as much soda in the last ten years than in the ten years before that. So these people are getting dehydrated, they are consuming more sodas, which doesn't function in the same way as water, and that is why they get asthma. Now, give these children water, and their asthma will disappear very quickly, in a matter of a few hours, completely the breathing becomes normal. The need for these inhalers will disappear.

And when I contacted the NIH and explained all of this, the gentleman who was in charge of this said I was so ignorant on what was going on, and yet he wanted to protect his freedom, and so he ignored the information even though I had gone to Clinton, President Clinton to ask him to intervene, and give breath back to these children. But the NIH was adamant to use medication. He wrote me, actually, and said we are satisfied with the way asthma is being treated. So, this is the situation. Now 17 million children is America can recover in a matter of a few days if everyone in the country started talking to asthmatic people and saying water is what you should take. Can you imagine a solution so simple?

Mike: Yes. Yes I can, and there are many such solutions available to treat a great number of chronic diseases, just like you've been describing here. Of course, the pharmaceutical industry I think would be horrified to have that information become widespread.

Dr. B: Yeah, well, because what I'm saying is totally anti-business, and we are not talking about a few hundred thousand dollars, we are talking about a few billion dollars a year.

Treating hypertension with water

Mike: For the pharmaceutical industry, the existence of disease is a business question, because let's face it, the pharmaceutical industry is a for-profit industry. Profits are always first, and at least it's my belief, and it seems that you share it, that any therapy that competes with those profits is minimized, marginalized or outright attacked.

Dr. B: Yes, recently there was an ad on the television. It was very interesting -- I didn't realize it at the beginning, but I now realize that the ad was speaking to me. In other words, it was an ad against my statements. Because I've said that the heartburn is a sign of dehydration in the human body and you should drink water. And this guy comes and sits at the counter and asks, "Give me a glass of water, my heartburn is killing me." Or something like that. And the lady behind the counter says, "Water doesn't cure heartburn -- this medication does." So see, this is how the pharmaceutical industry fights the information that I put out. But nonetheless, people who did discover that water could cure their heartburn are wiser than those who buy into that advertising stunt.

Mike: It seems like there are almost two different groups of people in the United States. There are those who are now dependent on multiple pharmaceuticals to treat everything, every symptom that they have, and who alter their body chemistry and their brain chemistry through drugs, and then there are those who are educating themselves about the true causes of health. They're drinking water, they're avoiding food additives, they're engaging in exercise -- it seems like there's a chasm that's widening between these two groups.

Dr. B: Absolutely. That's why alternative medicine has picked up and you're getting more people going to alternative medicine than conventional medicine. You see, I've sold at least over 600,000 copies of my book Your Body's Many Cries for Water over the past 10 years. And so I've had over several thousand radio interviews in the past 10 years. Information is getting out into the hands of the public, so the pharmaceutical industry has to naturally increase its advertising to nullify this information that I have put out. That is why they have produced this ad -- one of many, actually.

Anyway, we were talking about drought management programs in the body. Hypertension is another one of these problems. When there isn't enough water in the body, or the body becomes dehydrated, 66% of the water loss is from the interior of the cells. 26% is from the environment around the cells, and only 8% is lost from the vascular system. But the vascular system is an elastic system -- it tightens up and takes up the slack so you don't see the problem that is going on inside the cells of your body by testing your blood that is being tested in so many conditions. If people drank water on a regular basis and took enough salt and minerals to expand the capillary beds, hypertension would disappear completely.

And there are 60 million Americans who don't realize that actually hypertension is one of the manifestations of drought management programs of the body when the body begins to operate a reverse osmosis process, to deliver water into the interior of those cells which are 66% water deficient. Now the pharmaceutical industry and the medical doctors arrogantly and ignorantly are treating hypertension with diuretics.

Mike: Let's get rid of the water!

Dr. B: They are getting rid of the water in the body, at a lot of, how shall I say, effort.

Mike: Isn't this an example of the arrogance of modern medicine in believing that it knows more than nature, it knows more than the body?

Dr. B: We, as doctors, are really 007 agents of the pharmaceutical industry. We are totally blind and ignorant and the pharmaceutical industry has hijacked medicine. We learn a couple of years of physiology, and soon as we go on the clinical side we are asked to forget those and begin to learn pharmacology in order to treat symptoms rather than understand the primary cause of the health problem.

Mike: But you were trained in classic, conventional way...

Dr. B: I had to educate myself.

Thinking outside the box

Mike: What it is that drove you to explore beyond the limited thinking of conventional medicine?

Dr. B: I'm always a curious person. I've been a curious person ever since I was born as far as I know. One day we had a thief come into the house and was on the wall, and I was only a two and a half year old boy. I went to him and said, "What are you doing here? Can't you see you're scaring everyone? Why don't you go?" I wasn't scared, I was curious.

That is what I am, right throughout my life, and that is why when I discovered that water cures pain, then this was an entrance for me to get into it and find out what was the reason. And that was when I discovered that my education was no good. I didn't learn medicine, I learned a little bit of anatomy and a little bit of histology, which stood me in good stead in order to understand the rest of the stuff.

Mike: You are, I'm sure the listeners would agree here, you are to be applauded for being able to venture outside of conventional medicine.

Dr. B: I'm only a healer because that's my way of thinking. I don't think about money, because money is, if you do a good deed, money will come as a by product of that good deed.

Mike: I agree with you wholeheartedly there.

Dr. B: You don't have to try and take the last drop of blood out of a person who comes to you in order to get help from you. That is against my nature. That's why I've put out my information for everyone to use on the internet, and it is only for further use or further education that I have produced my books and so on, and those books unfortunately, the cost of printing, distribution, forces the price on the information. If the pharmaceutical industry had the information that they were going to sell, for example the information in my book Your Body's Many Cries For Water, they would ask for $10,000 a book, not $14.95.

Mike: And, if they could, they would patent water...

Dr. B: They would patent it.

Mike: And try to sell it to you at $100 a dose, right?

Dr. B: That's right. So, basically, this is what's going on in medicine in America. Joint pain, back pain, arthritis cause by chronic dehydration Dr. B.: The human body also has its emergency calls for water. These are localized emergency calls. We call these heartburn, rheumatoid joint pain, back pain, migraine headaches, colitis pain, fibromyalgiac pain, even angina pain -- signs of dehydration in the body.

And the mechanism is very simple -- when there isn't enough water to be evenly distributed and certain parts of the body are working but not receiving enough water to deal with its toxic waste and metabolism, and the toxic waste builds up that area, the nerve endings in that area register the chemical environmental change with the brain. And the brain translates this information for the conscious mind in the form of pain.

Mike: So it's just the interpretation?

Dr. B: It's an interpretation, yes. So the conscious mind gets the information that, hey, this area we can't use anymore, it has a shortage of water. Of course, the conscious mind should have known that, but bad education has robbed us of that information. We think this pain is a disease.

Mike: The predominant diagnosis of this, of course, I think in the minds of most people, and especially in most M.D.s would be that there is something physically or structurally compromised in that area.

Dr. B: Well, of course, the compromise is when the tissue is dehydrated, it's changing structure. The plum-like cells become prune-like. Prune-like cells do not function in the same manners as a plum-like cell. So, that is how symptoms are produced. These symptoms mean, okay, let us get the ingredients that the body needs into the system. Now, when we say dehydration, water also brings a lot of other goodies to the cells. When we are dehydrated, these goodies are not delivered either. So, we need not only correct dehydration, but also to supply the minerals and vitamins and so on so that the body can repair itself.

Thirst perception not reliable

Mike: I'd like to you talk about how people can know when they need to drink water, because you talk about in the book how some of the signs of dehydration, the classic signs are not necessarily the only signs, and also how much should an average person be drinking?

Dr. B: First and foremost, don't wait until you get thirsty, because that's an error. Unfortunately, the National Academy of Sciences and some other people recently have been telling people to wait until they get thirsty before they drink, which is the main error that we inherited 100 years ago from a man called Walter Bradford Cannon. And that's why, at the time, there was a Frenchman saying that dehydration or thirst is a general sensation and we should study it, and Walter Bradford Cannon said, no, thirst is only a matter of dry mouth.

When the mouth is dry we are thirsty, which is an arrogant statement, and unfortunately western medicine bought into that understanding, and that's why we have a sick-care system, because from the age of 20 onwards, we gradually, imperceptibly become dehydrated without knowing it. We lose our perception of thirst. By the age of 70 we may be totally thirsty and obviously thirsty and yet not recognize the need to drink water, even when water is put next to us.

This was done as an experiment. A scientist asked a group of elderly people to withhold from drinking water for 24 hours, and similarly with young people. After 24 hours when water was made available, the elderly did not recognize that they were thirsty.

Mike: Even after 24 hours with no water?

Dr. B: Correct. Even when water was left next to them, some of them wouldn't reach for it. But the young people drank water, and corrected this dehydration. Now, this is a major problem, and that's why we have so many people in the elderly sector of our society who are sick, because they are totally dehydrated and they do not recognize it.

So, waiting to get thirsty is to die prematurely and very painfully. In fact, this is the title of an article that is posted on my website,
www.WaterCure.com, and also on NAFHIM, National Association For Honesty In Medicine (http://www.nafhim.org).

We should not wait to get thirsty, because water is the main source of energy. By the time you get thirsty, you will have lost energy from the water that you should have drunk and made available before you get thirsty. So, if you don't allow the gas tank of your car to come dry before you stop and take some gas, then why should you let your body become thirsty so that it stalls on the roadside before you drink water?

So, first thing, people should never allow themselves to get thirsty -- they should drink throughout the day. An average person needs two quarts of water a day. Average person really needs four quarts of water a day. But two quarts we have to supply. Two quarts we get from food metabolism and water content in foods. We need this amount of water to manufacture at least two quarts of urine. You know, not to put pressure on the kidneys. When we drink enough water so that the urine is colorless, that is a good sign. When the urine becomes yellow, it means that the body is beginning to become dehydrated and when it becomes orange, then the body is truly dehydrated and some part of the body is suffering from that dehydration.

Mike: So this is a very easy sign that people can pay attention to.

Dr. B: Absolutely.

Mike: They don't need a medical degree to see the color of their urine.

Dr. B: Well, that's why we should become observant to our urine production. And breathing -- when we are short of breath, it means we are dehydrated.

Mike: Are there other similar, simple symptoms that people can pay attention to?

Dr. B: The skin -- if the skin is nice and loose and smooth, then we are hydrated. If it becomes creasy and shriveled, it means dehydration. The crow's feet on the face of elderly people, that's a sign of dehydration. The turkey neck under the chin is a sign of dehydration. These are mentioned in my books, Your Body's Many Cries for Water, and also in my Water For Health, For Healing, For Life. I recommend everyone to read Water Cures, Drugs Kill, because in this book I've identified over 90 health problems that we in medicine have called disease, and yet water cures them.

So, when the body is short of water and they give it medication, naturally the person will die, because the medication is silencing the many cries of the body for water. But it's not correcting the dehydration. So we need to understand these symptoms of dehydration, and the book Water Cures, Drugs Kill will do that. People can order through the internet at
http://www.watercure.com or Amazon.com or
Barnesandnoble.com or go to the bookstore and get it.

Mike: You have an upcoming book on obesity, cancer, and depression, right?

Dr. B: Yes, I've got a book called Obesity, Cancer and Depression: The Common Cause and Actual Cure. I've identified why these three diseases are actually the branches of the same tree, and each one naturally produces a different problem at different age brackets, but they are all related conditions that occur as a result of dehydration over time. Time is of essence -- when incrementally we become dehydrated, the prune-like cells begin to transform. Some of them become cancerous, and I've explained all of this in the book. I explain how dehydration suppresses the immune system, directly or indirectly, and that's how most diseases occur, including cancer.

Mike: When is this book going to be published?

Dr. B: It will be available by the end of the year. People can keep an eye on the website
http://www.watercure.com, and it will be posted there when the book is available.

Sodas cause dehydration

Mike: Now here's another interesting question people have -- when they go out to eat at a restaurant, there's a tremendous amount of economic pressure from the point of view of the restaurant chain or restaurant owner to serve them something other than water. I remember there was a campaign at one time through Olive Garden restaurants. The campaign was called Just Say No to H2O, and they were rewarding waiters for making sure people bought some soft drinks rather than drinking water.

Dr. B: That's because everyone is after a fast buck, even at the expense of someone else's health. These restaurants are no different from the pharmaceutical industry when they push something that the body doesn't need. Of course, they don't know, they don't do it knowingly. One can't fault them. It's bad education, and we think that these soft drinks are synonymous with water.

Actually, a lot of children who drink soft drinks actually become "stupid", but once you take the soft drink away from them, their grades improve tremendously -- C's and F's become A's and B's. So, there is something in caffeine that suppresses the enzymes from memory-making. And this is exactly how the plant survives, because caffeine is a toxic chemical - it's a warfare chemical for the plant. Anything that would eat it will lose its art of camouflage, its alertness, good reaction, good response, and becomes easy prey to its own food chain predator.

Mike: Yes, caffeine is technically an insecticide.

Dr. B: Caffeine is technically an insecticide. So is morphine and so is cocaine. They are the same family of drugs -- neurotoxic substances.

Mike: Is there anything else in particular that our listeners should be aware of or should do to enhance their health through the information that you make available?

Dr. B: Yes, they can keep in touch. They can go to my website on a regular basis, and we post information there and letters that we exchange and so on. They can become part of the movement to bring honesty back into medicine. Because if they're young people, they've got many years to go, and unfortunately in a dishonest form of medical practice, they can become vulnerable.

Mike: That website is…

Dr. B:
http://www.watercure.com.

Mike: And the other one is
http://www.nafhim.org?

Dr. B: Yes, but they will get the option at http://www.watercure.com to go to either site. This information is free, it's the latest information in medical science, it's the future science of medicine, it's the foundation of the future science of medicine, and they have it at their use, free of charge. All they have to do is become curious as to learn. And the information is in such simple language that anyone can understand it. I don't use jargon. I use very simple English to explain complicated problems.

Mike: I thank you so much for your generosity, being willing to take this time and share your wisdom with the world.

Dr. B: Mike, it is my pleasure, and I thank you. I'm here to be heard and you make it possible for me to be heard, and I'm grateful to you.

Mike: Indeed, and likewise from this side. It's people like you that will revolutionize medicine, and that's what we need today.

Dr. B: Bernard Shaw says that normal people try to conform, and reasonable people do not conform, and look for alternatives. Therefore all progress belongs to unreasonable people.

About This Interview

You've been reading from an exclusive interview with Dr. Batmanghelidj, author of Water For Health, For Healing, For Life. Dr. B. is also the founder of the National Association for Honesty in Medicine and author of, Your Body's Many Cries For Water. Look for his new, upcoming book, "Obesity, Cancer and Depression: Their Common Cause and Actual Cure." Learn more about Dr. B. at www.WaterCure.com

http://www.naturalnews.com/Report_water_cure_0.html



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[ALOCHONA] Tender anarchy



Tender anarchy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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[ALOCHONA] Politics, violence and an election



Politics, violence and an election

Mohiuddin Alamgir narrates the ins' and outs' of the Bhola-3 by-elections on April 24
 
 


photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Two posters sitting side-by-side, showing Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shaon and Hafizuddin Ahmed,

   calm, composed and smiling, adorned the walls of the Public Library Auditorium of Lalmohon upazila of the Bhola district. No other image could be more deceiving. AL candidate Shaon and BNP candidate Hafiz were locked in one of the fiercest rivalries in recent times, during the by-elections for constituency 117 of the national parliament, consisting of the two upazilas, Lalmohon and Tajumuddin, of the district.

   The Bhola-3 by-polls, vacated by the Election Commission on February 7 this year following a High Court ruling, drew incredible attention from all walks of people in the country and generated a lot of heat in national politics, 16 months after the elections to the Ninth Parliament were held.

   The much-talked about by-election was important from many standpoints.

   For the ruling party, Awami League, it was an 'acid test' to prove that they still held on to the overwhelming mandate of the people they received during the election in December 29, 2008, especially, since they are under a lot of heat in recent times over the power crisis and the conduct of Bangladesh Chhatra League, an associate organisation of the party.

   For the opposition, it was a challenge to regain a seat they had lost in the last elections, after having won it over three consecutive elections, and more importantly, victory for BNP would have gone a long way to prove that the government in power was losing its popularity. Many people speculated that if something went wrong during the Bhola elections, the opposition party would be gifted an 'issue' to start a political movement. During a rally in Khulna a few days before the Bhola elections, opposition leader Khaleda Zia confirmed the speculation.

   At a personal level, it was a test for Hafizuddin to re-establish himself in BNP politics after his infamous rendezvous with the military-controlled interim government, during which time he had become a 'reformist'. The by-election was also important for AL stalwart Tofail Ahmed who was the election coordinator for Shaon. Tofail, another 'reformist', had been forced out of the national scene and many saw this as his ticket back to the centre of power.

   The election commission also had points to prove – that it could hold a free, fair and acceptable election under an elected government.

   Speaker Abdul Hamid had declared the Bhola-3 constituency void through an announcement in the parliament on February 10, this year, following a gazette notification from the Election Commission, which declared the seat of Awami League MP Mohammad Jashimuddin vacant on February 7.

   The High Court on February 26, 2009 ruled that Jashim's nomination was unlawful as he had provided false information to the authorities prior to the election, following a petition served by BNP's Hafizuddin. Jashim moved the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict but the apex court upheld the HC ruling.

   Electoral law stipulates that none can contest the polls in three years from the date of retirement and in five years after compulsory retirement from any public office. Jashimuddin was forced to retire from the army on Aug 31, 2006, and contested the general election in December 2008.

   In the 2008 election, Jasim secured 96,034 votes while his nearest contestant Hafiz, six time MP from the area, bagged 83,123 votes.

   APara area, Lalmohon thana headquarters, at about 9:00am on April 22, at least 12 Jubo League workers of the Dhaka City South unit were preparing campaign work for the day. The local authorities, in line with the instructions of the Election Commission, had already ordered outsiders to leave the area the night before.

   BNP leaders had been alleging for a while that at least around 1200 outsiders were camping for Shaon, threatening and terrorising local people.

   Shaon is the incumbent general secretary of the Dhaka City South Unit of Bangladesh Jubo League. BNP men also alleged that Shaon is a notorious tender manipulator at the Dhaka City Corporation and different departments of LGRD, and also accused him of being involved in the much-criticised Malibagh killing of 2001, led by then AL MP Dr HBM Iqbal. Four people, including a policeman, were killed in the incident.

   Hafiz further alleged that these 1200 outsiders had injured more than 300 opposition activists in the last few days. 'Only on April 22 more than 50 BNP activists were injured by Awami League thugs,' he claimed.

   Tofail Ahmed, meanwhile, said that the BNP activists were trying to give a false impression by appearing before the television cameras with bandaged heads.

   'The situation is calm and quiet here, but we are seeing reports of violence in the media. Have any of you checked the bandages of those people? Were they real or false? What if 500 of our people go to you wearing bandages?' he asked.

   Tofail brushed aside the BNP accusation that Awami League leaders from outside were staying at the constituency. 'No one is staying here. Anybody making such an accusation should prove it.'

   When Tofail's comments were brought to the attention of Hafiz, the former national footballer, he said, 'Tofail has a habit of commenting like that, but in reality, my home has become a hospital as my people cannot go to the hospital for treatment in fear of further AL attack,' he said.

   Awami League activists alleged that Moumachi Bahini (Bee force), Martial Bahini and Hockey Stick Bahini, alongside local pirates, leaded by Hafiz, were the reason behind the violence in the area for over a decade now. AL activists alleged that Hafiz was the man behind the 'oppression of the minorities' after the 2001 election. They claimed Hafiz was a local 'godfather' who carried out torture and oppression of local AL supporters between 2001 and 2006.

   'BNP men will not vote for him as he was a "reformist" who wanted to dethrone his own leader Khaleda Zia during the emergency', they said.

   BNP campaigners informed Xtra that they had chalked out strategies to stage small street meetings, as many as possible, as they feared that they become a target of the ruling party terrorists if they held large gatherings. BNP activists also conducted door-to-door campaign.

   BNP men, during their campaign, mainly criticised the government for having failed to control the prices and meet the demands for electricity and gas. At the public gatherings at Lalmohan and Tajumuddin, BNP also alleged that the ruling party was creating anarchy in the state as they have politicised and corrupted the administration and judiciary, and had been oppressing opposition party leaders in the country.

   In their campaign, AL activists claimed that electricity was not a problem in the district, as Bhola had capacity to produce 34 MW of electricity against a demand of 16 MW. AL's election strategy was to hold big meetings at the different points of the upazilas, including door to door campaign. During their meetings, AL leaders accused Hafiz of being the man behind the 'oppression to the minority' after the 2001 election. AL leaders also told locals that development could only be ensured if they voted for ruling party candidate.

   'We are in power and there are another three and half years to go. For the development of the area, people have to vote for us,' said Nazimuddin, a AL campaigner of Tajumuddin area.

   Hafiz had wanted the deployment of army in the constituency, from the beginning of his campaign, for a peaceful election and 'recovery of illegal arms'. He also threatened to boycott of the by-election if the army was not deployed.

   Shaon opposed Hafiz's demand for deployment of troops for the polls, 'Hafiz seems to have more faith in the army than in the voters. He had won all previous elections in the constituency with the backing of the army,' Shaon said.

   Both the leading political parties in the country took the Bhola by-elections as a challenge and members from the high command of both sides, frequently visited the constituency and took part in campaigns for their candidates.

   Members of the Rapid Action Battalion, on the morning of April 23, stopped central Bangladesh Nationalist Party leaders, including standing committee member Moudud Ahmed, vice-chairmen Abdullah Al Noman and Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, on their way to Lalmohan from Bhola town, at Kunjerhat of Borhanuddin, citing that the Election Commission had put a ban on the entrance of people without authorisation to the Bhola 3 constituency.

   Violence continued on the eve of the polls on April 23 and Hafiz said the AL men had attacked his polling agents in the evening when they were going to their localities with electoral roll and other documents.

   'Outsiders were attacking BNP men while the administration was stopping national leaders from entering the constituency,' Hafiz alleged he had lodged a complaint, of violence by the AL's activists, with the Election Commission, but the commission has apparently said 'ram da' (machete) was not a weapon.

   Hafiz said he was confident if the voters could go to the polling centres he would win but feared that Awami League goons would not allow the voters to go to polling centres and stop them on their way.

   In the evening, BNP men also became violent and at least a dozen vehicles, more than 30 shops and two election camps of the Awami League were vandalised.

   By night, different places at Tajumuddin and Lalmohon held an eerie silence and a number of BNP men alleged that they were warned about not going to the polling centres to vote for BNP candidate.

   'AL activists had warned us not to go to the polling centre. They said if we go, they will break our legs,' said Sabuj, a resident of Badarpur.

   On voting day, voters, members of the administration, election commission, law enforcement agencies, the media started the day in apprehension after the violent clashes the night before as well as sporadic clashes for the last few days.

   In time, it became clear that the elections would be marred by irregularities, violence and intimidation.

   On election day, at about 10:00am in the morning, about 500 yard from a remote polling centre of Pashim Char Umed Government Primary School centre of Lalmohon, a number of the voters were returning home alleging that AL workers had barred them from going to the polling centre. This scene was visible in at least 15 polling stations of the constituency that this correspondent had visited.

   Supporters of the Awami League blocked the centres at the Azharuddin High School and College, Pashchim Char Umedpur Government Primary School, Annadaprasad Government High School and Raichand Government Primary School, Debi Char High School and Hajiganj Primary School, Char Kachchhapiya Governemnt Primary School centre, and other polling stations.

   At about 11:00am at the Lalmohan Public Library Centre, just about 300 meters away from the Lalmohon Police Station, no BNP agent was available, 'they left their station without giving me a notice,' said Jasimuddin, presiding officer of the centre.

   At this centre, the total number of votes cast, was more than the number of voters, election officials later said.

   In most places, BNP polling agents were not present at the booth and when asked about it, the respective presiding officers informed that BNP polling agents had left their station without giving them a notice.

   Amanullah Aman, chief election agent for the BNP candidate, alleged that polling agents were driven out of 38 polling centres, out of the 86 centres by 11:00am, and it had no agent at the polling centres by 1:00pm. At least 200 BNP activists and supporters were injured in attacks by the ruling Awami League men in different places since the morning.

   Supporters of Shaon attacked BNP supporters near the Kishoreganj Primary School centre at Farazganj, polling centres at Badarpur, Kalma, Ramganj and Lord Hardinge, in the Lalmohan upazila. At polling centres of Tajumuddin there were similar reports.

   Amanullah Aman himself came under attack at the Aralia Government Primary Juba League general secretary Shahidullah.

   At Annadaprasad Government Primary School, the member of Ward 3 of the Lord Hardinge union council, Haji Badshah Miah, was assaulted by Awami League men. No supporter of the BNP was let in the area.

   The Awami League supporters also assaulted Abul Kasem, a BNP supporter, and four others at the centre. Only a police sub-inspector and two constables were deployed at the polling centre in the remote area and they could do nothing but watch helplessly.

   At Raichand School, BNP supporter Emran Hossain was assaulted for approaching the polling centre.

   Some of the Awami League activists at Raichand tried to defend what they did by saying, it was nothing compared with what was done by the BNP in 2001. They alleged that the Moumachi Bahini alone produced 40,000 fake votes in the 2001 election.

   Fake votes was a regular scene at a numbers of centres and two persons were arrested at the Debi Char High School and Hajiganj Primary School centres at Badarpur by the police.

   At the Char Kachchhapiya Government Primary School centre, voters were seen stamping ballots in an open area and supporters of the Awami League candidate were checking who they were casting their vote for.

   At 2:00pm, there were only two persons in the queue and 2,000 votes out of the 4,586 had been cast by 1:00pm at the Char Kachchhapiya centre, said presiding officer Mozammel Huq. There was no agent of BNP at the polling booth.

   Rafiqul Islam, a BNP polling agent at Azharuddin School and College, said the ruling party activists had snatched away national identity cards and other documents from him and some other BNP agents.

   At about 2:00pm the Election Commission suspended polling in nine centres because of various irregularities including Lalmohan Public Library Centre, Azharuddin Registered Primary School, Karimganj Senior Madrassah, Satani Government Primary School, Kishoreganj Government Primary School, Maheshkhali Ashrafia Government Primary School, Uttar Annadaprasad Government Primary School, Lord Hardinge Fazil Madrassah and Syedabad Forkania Madrassah.

   In the afternoon, no BNP agent was present during the vote count, Lalmohan election officials said. In the morning, voter turnout was average but after 12:00pm, almost all the centres were without voters and the turnout of female voters was more than expected.

   The election commission officially declared AL candidate Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shaon winner of Bhola – 3 constituency's by-election on April 25. The constituency's returning poll officer Nuruzzaman Talukder made the declaration at his office.

   He said that 67.17 per cent of the total 234,926 registered voters in the constituency had cast votes in the by-election.

   Of the 136,531 votes cast, Shaon had received a total of 93,873 votes in comparison to his BNP rival Hafiz's 42,658 votes. Voting was suspended at nine out of 86 centres, which represents just over 10 per cent. The nine centres accounted for some 31,000 votes.

   The EC had earlier said that the polls were held peacefully except for a few separate incidents. However the BNP has raised strong allegations of widespread violence and intimidation demanding the elections be declared null and void. Hafiz alleged that law enforcers, the Election Commission and the ruling party colluded to defeat the BNP.

   Shaon, meanwhile, said that election was free, fair and acceptable.

   'The EC, RAB, police and local officials abetted the ruling Awami League to stage a farce of an election. The Bhola-3 by-election was marked by the intimidation of voters, violence, lack of management and poor turnout,' wrote Democracywatch in their immediate report.

   However, Brotee, another election observer group, said no major untoward incident took place at the polling centres that witnessed steady voter turnout. Voters of minority communities cast their ballot without fear, Brotee reported.

   Democracywatch in a primary report said around 55 per cent voters exercised their franchise. Voter turnout in some voting centres was thin. Brotee said about 70 per cent voters cast ballot in the poll.

   The chief election commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, on voting day, said the by-election to the Bhola 3 constituency was 'by and large free and fair' and it had reflected the will of the people. Talking with reporters at his office in the evening, he said barring a few incidents, the atmosphere for polling was good.

   'Election results reflected the will of the people… A fully fair election is not practically possible anywhere,' he said.

   Shamsul said in the 2001 by-elections there was killing, but this time things were comparatively better and there had not been any use of firearms during the elections.

   'In some incidents, sharp weapons, but no firearms, have been used during the Bhola by-polls.'

   BNP on April 25 rejected as a 'farce' the by-election to Bhola 3 parliamentary constituency and demanded resignation of the Election Commission and fresh polls to the constituency.

   'We are rejecting this one-sided and stage-managed election. We are demanding immediate cancellation of the ballot and schedule for a fresh election under a new set-up of Election Commission,' BNP standing committee member Mirza Abbas said at a hurriedly called press conference at the party's Naya Paltan central office.

   Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on April 25, said the people of Bhola-3 had given fitting reply to the main opposition BNP. 'Our candidate in Bhola by-election got more votes than what the Awami League candidate had secured in Dec 29, 2008,' she said at a meeting at Chandpur Outer Stadium.
 


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RE: [ALOCHONA] Electricity Crisis_Mitthacar by Moin Gong & also Sk Hasian!!!




 Mr Khan,
 Do not rely on report of so called BNP Jaamati newspaper Amar Desh.
 Tongi Power Station start on 28/03/05 but next day its became out of order. Becaz it's build in with 2nd hand chiness  Machinery. Siddirgang Power Station became out of order during the Care Taker govt. Boro Pukuria 250 MW Powe Station still continue with repairing (jora-tali) and its producing 30 to 40 MW electricity each day.
 
Kind Regards
 
J.A.Chowdhury


To: world_peace_movement@yahoogroups.com; mukto-mona@yahoo.com; mukto_mona@yahoo.com; alochona@yahoogroups.com; sonarbangladesh@yahoogroups.com; mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com; voice-of-south@yahoogroups.com; odhora@yahoogroups.com; muslim-professionals@yahoogroups.com; bangladesh-zindabad@yahoogroups.com; amra-bangladeshi@yahoogroups.com; notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com
From: engrmhkhan@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:43:13 -0700
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Electricity Cris is_Mitthacar by Moin Gong & also Sk Hasian!!!



Dear Brothers & Sisters,

 

The claim of Moin Gong, Sk Hasiana & her followers about the corruption in power sector & production of electricity is completely baseless or not.

 

For detail pl go through the following links :

 

http://www.amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2010/04/12/27164

 

Thanks & regards,

 

Engr M H Khan






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[ALOCHONA] Fwd. War or peace on the Indus? John Briscoe, Harvard University




 


 

War or peace on the Indus?

 

Fwd from: husainfive@yahoo.com

 

Saturday, April 03, 2010

 

John Briscoe,

Professor of Environmental Engineering, Harvard University.

 

Anyone foolish enough to write on war or peace in the Indus needs to first banish a set of immediate suspicions. I am neither Indian nor Pakistani. I am a South African who has worked on water issues in the subcontinent for 35 years and who has lived in Bangladesh (in the 1970s) and Delhi (in the 2000s). In 2006 I published, with fine Indian colleagues, an Oxford University Press book titled India's Water Economy: Facing a Turbulent Future and, with fine Pakistani colleagues, one titled Pakistan's Water Economy: Running Dry.

 

I was the Senior Water Advisor for the World Bank who dealt with the appointment of the Neutral Expert on the Baglihar case. My last assignment at the World Bank (relevant, as described later) was as Country Director for Brazil. I am now a mere university professor, and speak in the name of no one but myself.

 

I have deep affection for the people of both India and Pakistan, and am dismayed by what I see as a looming train wreck on the Indus, with disastrous consequences for both countries. I will outline why there is no objective conflict of interests between the countries over the waters of the Indus Basin, make some observations of the need for a change in public discourse, and suggest how the drivers of the train can put on the brakes before it is too late.

 

Is there an inherent conflict between India and Pakistan?

 

The simple answer is no. The Indus Waters Treaty allocates the water of the three western rivers to Pakistan, but allows India to tap the considerable hydropower potential of the Chenab and Jhelum before the rivers enter Pakistan.

 

The qualification is that this use of hydropower is not to affect either the quantity of water reaching Pakistan or to interfere with the natural timing of those flows. Since hydropower does not consume water, the only issue is timing. And timing is a very big issue, because agriculture in the Pakistani plains depends not only on how much water comes, but that it comes in critical periods during the planting season. The reality is that India could tap virtually all of the available power without negatively affecting the timing of flows to which Pakistan is entitled.

 

Is the Indus Treaty a stable basis for cooperation?

 

If Pakistan and India had normal, trustful relations, there would be a mutually-verified monitoring process which would assure that there is no change in the flows going into Pakistan. (In an even more ideal world, India could increase low-flows during the critical planting season, with significant benefit to Pakistani farmers and with very small impacts on power generation in India.) Because the relationship was not normal when the treaty was negotiated, Pakistan would agree only if limitations on India's capacity to manipulate the timing of flows was hardwired into the treaty. This was done by limiting the amount of "live storage" (the storage that matters for changing the timing of flows) in each and every hydropower dam that India would construct on the two rivers.

 

While this made sense given knowledge in 1960, over time it became clear that this restriction gave rise to a major problem. The physical restrictions meant that gates for flushing silt out of the dams could not be built, thus ensuring that any dam in India would rapidly fill with the silt pouring off the young Himalayas.

 

This was a critical issue at stake in the Baglihar case. Pakistan (reasonably) said that the gates being installed were in violation of the specifications of the treaty. India (equally reasonably) argued that it would be wrong to build a dam knowing it would soon fill with silt. The finding of the Neutral Expert was essentially a reinterpretation of the Treaty, saying that the physical limitations no longer made sense. While the finding was reasonable in the case of Baglihar, it left Pakistan without the mechanism – limited live storage – which was its only (albeit weak) protection against upstream manipulation of flows in India. This vulnerability was driven home when India chose to fill Baglihar exactly at the time when it would impose maximum harm on farmers in downstream Pakistan.

 

If Baglihar was the only dam being built by India on the Chenab and Jhelum, this would be a limited problem. But following Baglihar is a veritable caravan of Indian projects – Kishanganga, Sawalkot, Pakuldul, Bursar, Dal Huste, Gyspa… The cumulative live storage will be large, giving India an unquestioned capacity to have major impact on the timing of flows into Pakistan. (Using Baglihar as a reference, simple back-of-the-envelope calculations, suggest that once it has constructed all of the planned hydropower plants on the Chenab, India will have an ability to effect major damage on Pakistan. First, there is the one-time effect of filling the new dams. If done during the wet season this would have little effect on Pakistan. But if done during the critical low-flow period, there would be a large one-time effect (as was the case when India filled Baglihar). Second, there is the permanent threat which would be a consequence of substantial cumulative live storage which could store about one month's worth of low-season flow on the Chenab. If, God forbid, India so chose, it could use this cumulative live storage to impose major reductions on water availability in Pakistan during the critical planting season.

 

Views on "the water problem" from both sides of the border and the role of the press

 

Living in Delhi and working in both India and Pakistan, I was struck by a paradox. One country was a vigorous democracy, the other a military regime. But whereas an important part of the Pakistani press regularly reported India's views on the water issue in an objective way, the Indian press never did the same. I never saw a report which gave Indian readers a factual description of the enormous vulnerability of Pakistan, of the way in which India had socked it to Pakistan when filling Baglihar. How could this be, I asked? Because, a journalist colleague in Delhi told me, "when it comes to Kashmir – and the Indus Treaty is considered an integral part of Kashmir -- the ministry of external affairs instructs newspapers on what they can and cannot say, and often tells them explicitly what it is they are to say."

 

This apparently remains the case. In the context of the recent talks between India and Pakistan I read, in Boston, the electronic reports on the disagreement about "the water issue" in The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Indian Express and The Economic Times. (Respectively, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Water-Pakistans-diversionary-tactic-/articleshow/5609099.cms, http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/ article112388.ece, http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/india/River-waters-The-next-testing-ground/Article1-512190.aspx, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Pak-heats-up-water-sharing/583733, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Pak-takes-water-route-to-attack-India/articleshow/5665516.cms.)

 

Taken together, these reports make astounding reading. Not only was the message the same in each case ("no real issue, just Pakistani shenanigans"), but the arguments were the same, the numbers were the same and the phrases were the same. And in all cases the source was "analysts" and "experts" -- in not one case was the reader informed that this was reporting an official position of the Government of India.

 

Equally depressing is my repeated experience – most recently at a major international meeting of strategic security institutions in Delhi – that even the most liberal and enlightened of Indian analysts (many of whom are friends who I greatly respect) seem constitutionally incapable of seeing the great vulnerability and legitimate concern of Pakistan (which is obvious and objective to an outsider).

 

A way forward

 

This is a very uneven playing field. The regional hegemon is the upper riparian and has all the cards in its hands. This asymmetry means that it is India that is driving the train, and that change must start in India. In my view, four things need to be done.

 

First, there must be some courageous and open-minded Indians – in government or out – who will stand up and explain to the public why this is not just an issue for Pakistan, but why it is an existential issue for Pakistan.

 

Second, there must be leadership from the Government of India. Here I am struck by the stark difference between the behaviour of India and that of its fellow BRIC – Brazil, the regional hegemon in Latin America.

 

Brazil and Paraguay have a binding agreement on their rights and responsibilities on the massive Itaipu Binacional Hydropower Project. The proceeds, which are of enormous importance to small Paraguay, played a politicised, polemical anti-Brazilian part in the recent presidential election in Paraguay. Similarly, Brazil's and Bolivia's binding agreement on gas also became part of an anti-Brazil presidential campaign theme.

 

The public and press in Brazil bayed for blood and insisted that Bolivia and Paraguay be made to pay. So what did President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva do? "Look," he said to his irate countrymen, "these are poor countries, and these are huge issues for them. They are our brothers. Yes, we are in our legal rights to be harsh with them, but we are going to show understanding and generosity, and so I am unilaterally doubling (in the case of Paraguay) and tripling (in the case of Bolivia) the payments we make to them. Brazil is a big country and a relatively rich one, so this will do a lot for them and won't harm us much." India could, and should, in my view, similarly make the effort to see it from its neighbour's point of view, and should show the generosity of spirit which is an integral part of being a truly great power and good neighbour.

 

Third, this should translate into an invitation to Pakistan to explore ways in which the principles of the Indus Waters Treaty could be respected, while providing a win for Pakistan (assurance on their flows) and a win for India (reducing the chronic legal uncertainty which vexes every Indian project on the Chenab or Jhelum). With good will there are multiple ways in which the treaty could be maintained but reinterpreted so that both countries could win.

 

Fourth, discussions on the Indus waters should be de-linked from both historic grievances and from the other Kashmir-related issues. Again, it is a sign of statesmanship, not weakness, to acknowledge the past and then move beyond it. This is personal for me, as someone of Irish origin. Conor Cruise O'Brien once remarked, "Santayana said that those who did not learn their history would be condemned to repeat it; in the case of Ireland we have learned our history so well that we are condemned to repeat it, again and again."

 

And finally, as a South African I am acutely aware that Nelson Mandela, after 27 years in prison, chose not to settle scores but to look forward and construct a better future, for all the people of his country and mine. Who will be the Indian Mandela who will do this – for the benefit of Pakistanis and Indians – on the Indus?

 

The writer is the Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering, Harvard University. Email: jbriscoe@seas. harvard.edu

 

 

 



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