3 September 2003

Defending Water as a Public Good: Indian Movements Resist Water Privatisation as a Solution to Water Stress and Water Pollution

WTO & Water Privatisation

Privatisation and commodification of water is a major element of the GATS negotiation in the upcoming WTO Ministerial meeting.

Water services have always been on the GATS agenda. For instance, environmental services currently include sewage, refuse disposal, sanitations, gas exhaust cleanup, and nature protection. At the heart of the environmental industry and of these services is of course water. The centrality of water to this field has been of interest not only to the WTO but also to the European Community-the government of the European Union. In 2000, the European Community reported that environmental services amount to $280 billion and are expected reach $640 billion by 2010, placing this sector in roughly the same category as the pharmaceutical and information technology industries.

The European Community has expanded the coverage of water services to include water collection, purification and distribution. And of course, as Ruth Caplan of the Alliance for Democracy points out, collection could include the withdrawal of water from bodies of water and the extraction from groundwater and aquifers. The proposals by the European Community could, therefore, have a major impact on community rights to water resources. At the Doha meeting of the WTO in November 2001, the United States sneaked water trade into the Ministerial Declaration. The section on Trade and Environment refers to the reduction or, as appropriate, elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to environmental goods and services. In other words, free trade in water.

Multinational Corporation cannot Guarantee Safe and Affordable Water

The contamination of Coke and Pepsi with pesticides has triggered a new concern about safe water. These findings have challenged the myth that MNCs of a safety and reliability whereas the public sector and local municipality cannot be trusted. This elite bias against the public management of public goods and services has been a contributing factor to the privatisation of water. However both in India and across the world privatisation has failed to provide people with affordable and safe water.

In Canada people died of e-coli contamination after privatisation of water services in Ontario. Suez was forced to leave Argentine when it failed to deliver clean and affordable water. Saur increased water rates by 140% in South Africa leading to disconnection for the poor who could afford to pay the rates using the phrase no money no water. 11% people of the community were forced to drink water from rivers after the cutoff. According to government figures about 120,000 people were affected by cholera and 250 people died in 2002.

In Philippines when the MNC Ondeo (a subsidiary of Suez) failed to make super profits, it abandoned the contract leading the Metropolitan Water Works and Sewage System with a bill for refunding a 303 million US dollars for invested capitals and debt payment of 530 million US dollars associated with the privatisation contract.

The recent experience in Delhi follows this trend.

Increased Public Investment (Sonia Vihar Water Treatment Plant):

The plant is under construction and the work has been awarded to a multi national firm Degremont SA, a subsidiary of Suez/ Degremont. The plant is financially over burdened.

Increased Tariff (Under the pressure of WB and MNCs):

The setup of regulatory in DJB indicates towards the hike in water tariffs for the convenience of Multi nationals and water rights as mentioned in the World Bank 's agenda will overburden the consumers.

Decreased quality (Okhla Water Treatment Plant):

The claim of multi nationals that they provide better services and better water quality is nullified at Okhla Water treatment plant that is under run by Degremont (subsidiary of Suez) and the quality of treatment is under question.

Misuse and loot of public money (Nangloi Water treatment Plant):

The Nagloi WTP is the best example of the loot of these Private players. This plant is under run by NBCC and the plant is almost non-functional due to non-attending of maintenance work.

Poor working and poor Services (Rithala Sewage Treatment Plant):

The poor working and negligence by Degremont has resulted in the deaths of five innocent employees on 25th day of June 2003. This has unfolded the claims of state of art functioning of Degrement and Multi Nationals.

Poor functioning (Trunk sewer lines):

While cleaning the sewer lines by Werm India Ltd (A UK based multinational) at Ashok Vihar three employees died in sewers unfolding the poor state of working and their negligence towards employees and their safety.

Claim of funding projects (Okhla STP automation):

The multi national and world bank claim of investments in water and environmental projects, Okhla STP Automation unfold the claim. In this project World Bank was to 176 lacks as grant in aid but at the zero hour World Bank withdrawn from its own proposal of funding resulted in delay of the project and over funding on the Government.

We demand that water stay in public hands and water services be managed as public goods and services.

Safe food and safe water go hand in hand

Pesticides are poisons used in industrial agriculture. Since the finding of pesticides residues in soft drinks, the presence of these poisons in our food and agriculture is being forgotten.

A 1999 study conducted by All India Coordinated Research Project on Pesticide Residue (AICRP) showed 60 percent food commodities contaminated with pesticides of which 14 percent were over the maximum residue level.

Pesticide and poison free agriculture is necessary for production for safe good and safe water. Organic agriculture has established that more food and nutrition can be produced with less pollution if chemicals are removed from food production system. In Germany and France water works are subsidizing organic growers to ensure that nitrates from fertilizers and pesticides do not contaminate the ground water. This is proving to be cheaper than cleaning up drinking water after contamination.

Organic farming is the answer to the contamination of our food and water with pesticide. The only safe pesticide policy is the no pesticide policy of organic farming.