Water Privatization Is Not A Solution
The right to clean water is a human right.
Under the Lisbon treaty's new policies, the EU as a whole, rather than member governments, would unilaterally be setting competition that could lead to the current publicly controlled water delivery system being taken over by private companies.
Critics of water privatization point to the classic example of Grenoble, France, explained in this IPS news article. ".....Grenoble is often cited as a case study of how water privatisation can go wrong.
"In 1989, responsibility for water and sewage in Grenoble was taken over by Lyonnaise des Eaux, part of the global water company Suez. Following revelations that the deal was tainted by illegal payments to elected representatives and company executives, the water service was eventually returned to the public sphere in 2000.
"Over the past few years, Grenoble has been said to offer the cheapest water of all French cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Information campaigns aimed at cutting the amount of water wasted have proven successful, according to some campaigners.
"Emanuele Lobina from the University of Greenwich in Britain said that experiences in Amsterdam, Milan and Grenoble illustrated how water management can be more efficient when it is publicly, rather than privately managed."
What about privatized water systems in the United States?
Dennis Kucinich says, "Private companies, seeking to extract profits from municipal water systems, dangle lofty promises in order to gain control of local water systems. Corporations want people to believe that only they can efficiently manage water systems.
"They seek monopoly contracts to run water systems for generations, or to expand the outright corporate ownership of water supplies and infrastructure."
It took a six year battle by a Stockton, California citizen's group who wanted to keep water under local public control to stop a multinational corporation from taking over the public water system and turning into it into a for profit, damn the citizens, business.
As an article from In These Times states, "More than 80 percent of Americans fill their glasses with water owned and managed by public utilities—a market for growth that has CEOs rubbing their hands. Across the United States, multinational corporations are swooping into towns and cities with promises of a more efficient and economical water system if they would just turn over their taps.
"But for many municipalities, it is a raw deal. Privatization often results in exorbitant water rates, poor service, little accountability, a disregard for public safety and destruction of the environment. City officials in Atlanta, for instance, cancelled their contract with Suez four years into privatizing their water system after residents experienced routine boil orders, water shortages and rate hikes.
“People get at a very basic level that they don’t want a really important public service like water to be privatized,” [Wenonah]Hauter [executive director of Food and Water Watch] says. “They don’t want the customer call center to be 1,000 miles away. They don’t want their water rates going up. Privatizations are succeeded with environmental disasters, as [companies] try to cut corners and they don’t fix the leakages.”
However, a town not far from Stockton has not been so fortunate. As the article continues, "Two hours from Stockton, residents in Felton, Calif., have been trying to pry their pipes out of a corporation’s grip since 2002. Cal-Am, owned by the multinational giant RWE, raised water rates by 44 percent and is pushing for another increase that would raise rates by a total of over 100 percent."
As Dennis Kucinich reminds us: "The mission of a public water system is simple: Deliver safe, clean and affordable water to you and your family. Public works projects funded and built our existing water infrastructure, which has served us well during the last century. But our water infrastructure is beginning to show signs of age. Pollution, decaying pipes, depleted aquifers and other problems pose real threats to the U.S. water supply and communities across the nation are looking for ways to bring water systems up to safe and modern standards. Privatizing water systems, however, is not the answer."
The answer has been and continues to be water systems publicly owned, controlled, administered and accountable to their constituencies. Citizens need to be alert in their communities about possible corporate takeovers of their public water system.
Under the Lisbon treaty's new policies, the EU as a whole, rather than member governments, would unilaterally be setting competition that could lead to the current publicly controlled water delivery system being taken over by private companies.
Critics of water privatization point to the classic example of Grenoble, France, explained in this IPS news article. ".....Grenoble is often cited as a case study of how water privatisation can go wrong.
"In 1989, responsibility for water and sewage in Grenoble was taken over by Lyonnaise des Eaux, part of the global water company Suez. Following revelations that the deal was tainted by illegal payments to elected representatives and company executives, the water service was eventually returned to the public sphere in 2000.
"Over the past few years, Grenoble has been said to offer the cheapest water of all French cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Information campaigns aimed at cutting the amount of water wasted have proven successful, according to some campaigners.
"Emanuele Lobina from the University of Greenwich in Britain said that experiences in Amsterdam, Milan and Grenoble illustrated how water management can be more efficient when it is publicly, rather than privately managed."
What about privatized water systems in the United States?
Dennis Kucinich says, "Private companies, seeking to extract profits from municipal water systems, dangle lofty promises in order to gain control of local water systems. Corporations want people to believe that only they can efficiently manage water systems.
"They seek monopoly contracts to run water systems for generations, or to expand the outright corporate ownership of water supplies and infrastructure."
It took a six year battle by a Stockton, California citizen's group who wanted to keep water under local public control to stop a multinational corporation from taking over the public water system and turning into it into a for profit, damn the citizens, business.
As an article from In These Times states, "More than 80 percent of Americans fill their glasses with water owned and managed by public utilities—a market for growth that has CEOs rubbing their hands. Across the United States, multinational corporations are swooping into towns and cities with promises of a more efficient and economical water system if they would just turn over their taps.
"But for many municipalities, it is a raw deal. Privatization often results in exorbitant water rates, poor service, little accountability, a disregard for public safety and destruction of the environment. City officials in Atlanta, for instance, cancelled their contract with Suez four years into privatizing their water system after residents experienced routine boil orders, water shortages and rate hikes.
“People get at a very basic level that they don’t want a really important public service like water to be privatized,” [Wenonah]Hauter [executive director of Food and Water Watch] says. “They don’t want the customer call center to be 1,000 miles away. They don’t want their water rates going up. Privatizations are succeeded with environmental disasters, as [companies] try to cut corners and they don’t fix the leakages.”
However, a town not far from Stockton has not been so fortunate. As the article continues, "Two hours from Stockton, residents in Felton, Calif., have been trying to pry their pipes out of a corporation’s grip since 2002. Cal-Am, owned by the multinational giant RWE, raised water rates by 44 percent and is pushing for another increase that would raise rates by a total of over 100 percent."
As Dennis Kucinich reminds us: "The mission of a public water system is simple: Deliver safe, clean and affordable water to you and your family. Public works projects funded and built our existing water infrastructure, which has served us well during the last century. But our water infrastructure is beginning to show signs of age. Pollution, decaying pipes, depleted aquifers and other problems pose real threats to the U.S. water supply and communities across the nation are looking for ways to bring water systems up to safe and modern standards. Privatizing water systems, however, is not the answer."
The answer has been and continues to be water systems publicly owned, controlled, administered and accountable to their constituencies. Citizens need to be alert in their communities about possible corporate takeovers of their public water system.
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