Rights groups seek inclusion of right to water in constitution

On the ongoing 2nd National Urban Water Sector Reform Project in Nigeria, which is being financed by a $200mWorld Bank loan, Mr. Babalobi called for its  review to "make it inclusive, people centred, transparent, participatory, and achieve the goal of delivering water to Nigerians at an affordable price."

 "Water must remain a public trust rather  than that a commodity to be traded by the private sector, to guarantee its access and affordability to the poor who used it  most”, said Mr. Babalobi.

The World Bank has a policy of forcing loans with onerous conditions on poorercountries, then demanding as terms of the loan that they they privatize the water. This helps the people not a whit, but certainly helps multinational corporations quite a lot.

We’re not talking bubble gum here, we’re talking water. It’s an indispensable part of life, and shouldn’t be for sale to the highest bidder.

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Private participation in water delivery faces stiff challenge.

Government’s move to handover the management of the country’s water delivery could run into difficulty.

This follows the determination of the civil society groups to resist the implementation of what has come to be known as the private-public participation in water delivery.

Speaking to Joy business report a member of the National Coalition against Water Privatization Dr David Percy said Ghana’s water delivery system will be worse off if private companies are made to manage the water system.

The fight against water privatization is worldwide and growing. On one side, the populace who wants public water available at a reasonable price, controlled locally. On the other, multinational corporations and entities like the World Bank who force water privatization on any country that wants a loan. Take a guess as to which one will put the interests of the public first.

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Everyone who buys a house in Denver’s growing suburbs pays a hidden price for water.

That first twist of the faucet in a new suburban home costs as much as $24,424 - more than twice the amount charged in any U.S. city outside metro Denver surveyed last year by the American Water Works Association.

In semi-arid Colorado, there are well-known reasons for the high cost of water service. Among them: scant reservoir space and an immense mountain range separating water from people.

A less-discussed reason is that in Colorado, water is property, and in much of the state, somebody already owns a right to use every gallon. Getting that water requires entering a volatile market where prices can double in an instant

Via Colorado Water, who adds more.

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The battle to keep water non-privatized is worldwide. And it’s always large banks, especially The World Bank and their allies, who want to force countries to privatize.

From the Philippines Sun Star

I believe, and so as the majority of water consumers all over the world, that w ater is a human right. This is the reason why water distribution companies is classified as public utilities because government agencies monitor their operations and regulate their rates and charges to consumers.

But the privatization program of international financial institutions like the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is pushing the services sector to corporate hands that are profit driven. So the civil society in Asia-Pacific region are clamoring against privatization of water services and condemns the detrimental impact ADB’s involvements in the water sector.

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Yet another example of the worldwide stuggle to keep water public.

The award of the contract to Vtiens International, a Dutch company and Rand Water from South Africa to manage Ghana Water Company was a trade-off between the government and IMF/ World Bank, whose stench had long been in the air.

Available records show that these two institutions have been the significant drivers of water privatization and in the last decade, they have made remarkable investments in these sectors across the developing world with the aim of preparing them for privatization.

In fiscal year 2005, the World Bank spent over $7 billion in these sectors, including about $3 billion in the water and sanitation sector. Does the $1.2 million World Bank grant to Ghana for the water sector rehabilitation ring any bells?

The truth underlying water privatization is that corporations are pressuring their governments to help them penetrate lucrative overseas markets.

The institutions require governments to prepare <Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers>  PRSPs as a condition for receiving financial assistance, which must necessarily include privatization of essential services, like water. That perhaps, explains why we have had to barter away the water to multinational corporations.

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This is one of the clearest explanations I’ve seen as to why water privatization is a terrible idea.

Champions of privatization want to do is to take all the assets of the government and give them to private corporations to run at a profit. For example, if my local municipality has spent 100 years putting together a water supply for my community, something we paid for and we own, these fellas want to give it to some guy so he can make a profit selling me water. Sometimes the new owner is asked to make a modest investment in his new business, but seldom does that entry fee represent anything like the value of the assets that have been privatized into his care.

Formerly, water - clean, healthy water was practically a right. It didn’t matter who I was. Turn on the tap and the water flows. If it didn’t, there was hell to pay and we could vote the water commissioners, councilmen, or whoever was responsible, out of office and even demand that they be heavily fined or jailed for betraying a public trust.

Once privatized, what was our water isn’t a right anymore. It is a product. If it becomes more profitable to do something else with it than sell it to us at whatever rate the market will bear, then we’d better get used to not having any water.

But above and beyond this kind of shell game, one of the worst things these champions of privatization do is to set up the government to fail, purposefully to demonstrate to us all that government can’t do the job properly.

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From PBS

The world is poised on the brink of epochal changes in how water is stored, used, and valued. Will these changes provide clean water to the billions of people who need it? Or save the child who dies every eight seconds from contaminated water? Examining water conflicts on three continents, "Thirst" shows that popular opposition to the privatization of water sparks remarkable coalitions that cross partisan lines. When it comes to water, many people demand local control and fear the arrival of multinational corporations with large lobbying budgets and little local loyalty.

The battle to stop water privatization is worldwide, and is happening in US cities as well as in the third-world.

The website for the movie, ThirstTheMovie.org, sums it up in one sentence.

Is water a human right or a commodity to be bought and sold in a global marketplace?

Unless you believe multinational corporations will altruistically put the needs of water consumers before their lust for profits (in which case I have a nice bridge for sale) then it behooves us all to keep water in public hands and out of their grasping little hands.

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Was Macedonia’s civil war of 2001 provoked merely by the stated desire of the Albanian insurgents for more civil rights, or for their alleged desire to hack off the western part of that country? Was it merely a matter of ethnic hatreds, or were other strategic interests involved?

A few years ago, Sam Vaknin painted a general picture of the emerging water crisis around the world and how future conflicts might be at least surreptitiously shaped by rich nations’ common need to acquire and control water supply as lakes and rivers dry up or become salinated. In this context, the Macedonian conflict takes on new dimensions.

Here’s a crucial point.

It also seems likely that Macedonia’s "frozen conflict" will have to thaw out someday, with control of the ensuing flow being an item of top importance for the enemy sides. The stakes will be high, not only for Macedonia’s inhabitants but for international investors from high-water usage industries, who will be eager to be on the winning side.

AKA water privatization. Grab the water, then sell it to the highest bidder. I’m guessing international water speculators will not have the needs of Macedonians uppermost in their minds.

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Three-quarters of British Columbians oppose privatization of drinking water.

71% trust their community’s local government more than the private sector to provide safe drinking water.

Almost nine-in-ten (88%) agree with the statement that "water is a basic public service and should always remain in public hands."

"On Vancouver Island, where there are serious threats to public water, this should be an issue in the November 19 municipal and regional district elections" said Barry O’Neill, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, who are campaigning to stop water privatization.

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Lexington Kentucky wants to buy back their water company from German conglomerate RWE. The courts just ruled against a vote on this based on a technicality. Bluegrass FLOW continues to fight for Lexington to own their water. They document how the current private ownership has, among other things, resulted in billing errors and lost revenue for the city.

And it’s going on in Pennsylvania too. 

Water battle heading to arbitration

Lehigh County, two townships oppose sale to Pennsylvania Aqua.

The fight to keep a local water company away from water-giant Aqua Pennsylvania Inc. will be assigned to an arbitrator this week as a result of protests filed by several municipalities and more than 200 customers. 

It’s clear. The people want public ownership of their water.

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In early April the often-forgot country of Bolivia, tucked away in he Andes, grabbed the world’s attention when the city of Cochabamba erupted in a public uprising over water prices. In 1999, following World Bank advice, Bolivia granted a 40 year privatization lease to a subsidiary of the Bechtel Corporation, giving it control over the water on which more than half a million people survive. Immediately the company doubled and tripled water rates for some of South America’s poorest families.

The people fought back and in a landmark battle defeated Bechtel, drove them out of the country, and took back control of the water. Their successful struggle has been an inspiration worldwide for those fighting for clean, low-priced water for all.

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The explosive growth of three private water utility companies in the last 10 years raises fears that mankind may be losing control of its most vital resource to a handful of monopolistic corporations. In Europe and North America, analysts predict that within the next 15 years these companies will control 65 percent to 75 percent of what are now public waterworks.

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The rush to privatize water continues unencumbered, despite its unpopularity among residents worldwide who are affected by it. Countries faced with large debts are forced by the World Bank and IMF to privatize water. Water deregulation is a common demand of the World Bank and IMF as part of their loan conditions. In 2000, out of 40 IMF loans distributed through the International Finance Corporation, 12 had requirements of partial or full privatization of water supplies.

They also insisted on the creation of policies to stimulate "full cost recovery" and the elimination of subsidies. African governments, such as Ghana, increasingly give in to pressures for water privatization. In Ghana, the World Bank and IMF policies forced the sale of water at market rate, requiring the poor to spend up to 50 percent of their earnings on water purchases.

As Vandana Shiva writes in Water Wars, "The water crisis is the most pervasive, most severe, and most invisible dimension of the ecological devastation of the earth."

This is from the amazingly comprehensive Water is Life "class website on water privatization and commodification, produced by students of Geography 378 at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, USA, May 2004." They have a huge amount of information and links on water privatization, check it out.

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From Oligopoly Watch:

New federal regulations in the US seem likely to trigger the rapid oligopolization of the US water utility market. That’s according to a story in The New York Times ("It Doesn’t Mix With Oil, and the Market Is Drinking It Up", 10/30/2005).

Currently, most the US’s water and sewage systems are owned by local, municipal or semi-public companies. There are a total 55,000 of such utilities, and (according to the article, 95% of them serve fewer than 3,000 homes each. Most of these systems are over 50 years old, and many are in need of serious maintenance campaigns.

But the kicker is that these cash-starved services are about to get hit by new government regulations.

These regs, which mandate new water quality standards, make it likely these small water companies will get bought out by enormous multinational water companies. Sure, we need clean water, but when an enormous French, British, or US multinational owns the water system in your town, I’m guessing they will put profit before anything else. And that’s hardly a guarantee of clean, reasonably priced water, now is it? Because suddenly your water system is no longer public, can be bought and sold without the say of those who use the water, and unless you think the Enron debacles were a good thing, then let’s keep water public and affordable.

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How multinationals are taking control of a public resource

Canadian Broadcasting produced this comprehensive 5-part series in 2003 on water privatization. Check it out.

Water, like air, is a necessity of human life. It is also, according to Fortune magazine, "One of the world’s great business opportunities. It promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th."

In the past ten years, three giant global corporations have quietly assumed control over the water supplied to almost 300 million people in every continent of the world. A 12-month investigation by journalists in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America shows that the results range from questionable to disastrous. And it shows how well-meaning municipal governments in the U.S. and Canada can become vulnerable to the persuasive techniques of these high-powered corporate giants. 

Water is a right, not a commodity to be bought and sold to whoever pays the most. Privatization of water is being forced by multinationals, aided and abetted by the World Bank. It generally ends up depriving the needy of that most basic right, the right to drink clean, affordable water.

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Environmental issues scarcely make the top of the news unless a disaster occurs, such as Hurricane Stan, or unless a homicide claims an activist, such as Parota Dam opponent Tomás Cruz Zamora.

So it is not surprising that the Mexican Coalition of Organizations for the Right to Water attracted little attention with its Oct. 11 debut.

But the minimal coverage belies the groundswell of interest in water issues that is building in the lead-up to the World Bank’s Fourth World Water Forum set for March in Mexico City. The 16 groups that recently founded the coalition will sponsor an alternative to the event, featuring a tribunal that will bring to task three cases of water mismanagement in the hemisphere.

The main concerns of the water activists are unfair distribution of water, privatization of water services, and lack of mechanisms guaranteeing public participation in water decisions.

This is a worldwide issue and struggle. Large corporations, aided and abetted by the World Bank, want to privatize water. Inevitably the price of water goes up and the quality goes down when public water is privatized. Access to clean, low cost water is a right. It shouldn’t be controlled by corporations who only care about making a profit. 

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