| The upshot of Berlusconi's neat little maneuver is that Italy's traded water companies, Acque Potabili SpA and Mediterranea delle Acque SpA, surged in Milan trading on expectations that they will have access to more water contracts. Acque Potabili gained as much as 21 percent and Mediterranea delle Acque jumped 14 percent. Not bad for a day's work. Oh, and both Suez & Vivendi's shares went up as well on the premise that they too will buy more into Italy's water (basically, what they don't already own).
Water privatization is on the march, worldwide. So are the protestors. In the capital of South Australia, Adelaide, hundreds of environmentalist activists gathered on the steps of Parliament House to press the state government to refrain from privatizing dams and desalination plants. They also asked for more stormwater recycling. Source
In Asia, indigenous communities, farmers, women and the urban poor also face the negative impact of water privatization: large communities are displaced from their ancestral lands when dams are built, farmers yields decrease and their livelihood threatened as a result of water corporations indiscriminate mining of ground water. I have read countless stories about women having to walk miles to get water and return in time to get to work and some continue to depend on contaminated water leading to dysentery and other health problems. At the same time, water corporations take advantage of the resultant scarcity of water and have developed the industry in bottled water. Water corporations extract the water of certain communities and sell the same water to consumers who can afford to purchase it.
In her book Water Wars, the Indian author Vandana Shiva lists nine principles underpinning water democracy. At least two of these principles are directly compromised by the privatization of water. I quote from her book:
"Water must be free for sustenance needs. Since nature gives water to us free of cost, buying and selling it for profit violates our inherent right to nature's gift and denies the poor of their human rights."
snip
"When private companies try to make large profits through high water prices, it denies the poor the inalienable right to the most necessary substance for life. Water is a commons. It cannot be owned as private property and sold as a commodity."
Incidentally, back in 2003, Vandana Shiva has also written an article about the Iraq invasion - if you have five minutes, please read it (link here) Bechtel And Blood For Water: War As An Excuse For Enlarging Corporate Rule which is pretty much self explanatory:
"The U.S. led war first bombed out Iraq's hospitals, bridges, water works, and now U.S. corporations are harvesting profits from 'reconstructing' a society after its deliberate destruction. Blood was not just shed for oil, but also for control over water and other vital services... war has become a convenient excuse for enlarging corporate rule. If W.T.O. is not enough, use war."
While the last World Water Forum touted the privatization of municipal water systems as a means of improving the welfare of communities in need, the reality is that water is being used to generate profit rather than to slake the world's growing thirst. Water privatization has caused conflicts around the world, and communities that have sold their water rights face limited access to water, higher tariffs, and poor water quality.
Italian economist Riccardo Petrella, who wrote "The Water Manifesto" visited Chile this week as the guest of another water activist, Bishop Luis Infanti of Aysen. In Santiago, besides meeting with government authorities, Petrella had an appointment with former President Ricardo Lagos, now a special envoy for Climate Change to the United Nations. Their goal: to present a united front opposing the privatization of water services in time for the global climate change summit to be held in Copenhagen next month. Petrella attacked the argument that only private investors could afford to modernize water systems, saying that the government of Chile should shoulder its responsibilities to its citizens, who ended up paying for water service in either case. He criticized the building of desalination plants and large-scale dams to generate energy for mining operations because both produced pollution.
Greece: after the recent sale of state-owned Olympic Airlines, the Greek government said that it planned to seek more private investors for the Thessaloniki Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYATH) in Thessaloniki Prefecture. The government holds a 74% stake in EYATH. There are rumors that France's Suez company is interested. Am I surprised?
Water, unfortunately, has come under the control of market forces: giant water, energy and food companies are snapping up water rights which means that it will privatize publicly owned water systems, promote bottled water, and sell "bulk" water by transporting it from water rich areas to markets desperate for more water. For a large profit, of course. This is because water promises to be to the most precious commodity of the 21 st century profiting corporations. In Europe and North America, analysts predict that within the next 15 years the largest water companies will control 65 percent to 75% of what are now public waterworks. The global trade is expected to be a multi- trillion dollar industry in the near future when privatized water systems expand to serve about 17 to 20% of the world's population by 2015.
The world's private water industry is dominated by just three corporations: Vivendi and Suez, both of France, and Thames Water of England, owned by the German conglomerate RWE (there are a few lesser known companies in the US and Europe as well, but not as large as the Big Three). According to one of the reports in the CBC series, Peter Spillett, a senior executive with Thames Water, calls water the petroleum of the 21st century. Sounds familiar? Even the World Bank encourages poor countries to privatize their water systems (though critics say it subsidizes the private water barons).
Suez operates in 130 countries and Vivendi in over 100; their combined annual revenues are over $70 billion (including $19 billion in water and wastewater services). RWE revenues are currently over $50 billion (energy included), having acquired British water giant Thames Water. After purchasing American Water Works, RWE gained control of the largest U.S. private water utility. This expanded its customer base from 43 million to 56 million people. Other major water corporations include Bechtel, Biwater plc, Bouygues/Saur, U.S. Water, Severn Trent, Anglian Water, and the Kelda Group.
The Global crisis, by the numbers:
1.1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water. Two thirds of the world's population will not have enough fresh drinking water by the year 2025.
By 2050, 4.2 billion people, estimated to be over 45 per cent of the global total population, will be living in countries that cannot meet the daily requirements of 50 litres of water per person to meet basic needs.
Preventable water-related diseases kill 10,000 to 20,000 children every day in the developing world.
95 percent of sewage and 70 percent of industrial waste were being dumped untreated into water sources in developing countries.
World population increased three fold in the last century, stretching the use of water resources by 6 fold, according to the United Nations.
3 million people die every year from disease caused by unsafe water (UN Environmental Programme).
2.4 billion people in the developing world lack access to basic sanitation.
4 billion people are without a safe wastewater disposal system.
And lastly, if you haven't seen this documentary as yet, please do so: French journalist Irena Salina's film "Flow" reveals how drinking water supplies all over the globe are under assault from pollution, over-exploitation, and profit-seeking by multinational corporations. Film footage of a Bolivian river that's red with blood from a slaughterhouse, raw sewage pouring into India's Ganges River, and a U.S. bottling factory located near a heavily polluted "Superfund" site support Salina's conclusions as to why 2 million people die every year from waterborne diseases. Privatization and over-use of groundwater by bottling firms such as Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi is shown causing environmental damage in South Africa and the United States. The documentary ends with the warning that water is also running out in some places, including the American states of California and New Mexico. |
