WATER IN THE XXIth
CENTURY: THE BLUE GOLD
A product or a right?
Luis del Romero Renau
EGEA – Valencia
Euromediterranean Regional Congress
Pohorje, 24-28th april 2006
PRELUDE
“Water will be to the 21st century what oil
was to the 20th. Who owns water and how
much they are able to charge for it will
become the question of the century”.
Fortune Magazine, 2000
Let’s take a look to the water management
panorama to see how things are going on!
ACT 1: EL PALO
>>ELYSEE PALACE,
PARIS, FRANCE
03/05/05
>>EL PALO SUBURB,
LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
ACT 1: EL PALO
Situation of water in El Palo suburb, after more than 8 years of
privatised management: 200.000 persons with no access to
water, inversions for water infraestructures were reduced or
cancelled, but prices increased continuely from an average of
30 cent to 2 $. As a result big demos and a hunger strike in
2005 claimed for the end of privatised water manegement.
ACT 1: EL PALO
The company that bought
water management in El
Palo, SUEZ, was owned by
G. Mestrallet, personal
friend of Mr. Chirac, who
phoned personally the
former president of Bolivia
C. Mesa, “worried by the
security of the french invests
in Bolivia” after the protests
in El Palo against Suez.
A few days later as a result
of the water crisis in El Palo,
the president C. Mesa
resigned.
ACT 1: EL PALO
Finally the company left El Palo the 8th march,
but Bolivia will have to pay 11’6 million $, after
the pressure of WB and french government.
The privatiastion of water in El Palo had been
forced by the IMF in the 90’s. The company had
promised access to clean water in a few years
for everybody.
During the visit of the new president Evo
Morales in Europe, he was theratened in
Brussels of freezing European invests in the
country in case new conflicts against European
companies arise.
ACT 2: JAKARTA
>>FOREIGN AFFAIRS OFFICE,
LONDON, UK.
>>JAKARTA, INDONESIA, 1998
ACT 2: JAKARTA
UK-german Thames Water – RWE corporation formed
an alliance with the Sigit Group, controlled by dictator
Suharto’s eldest son, Sugit Harjojudanto to acquire
PAM Jaya, the municipal water supplier of Jakarta.
The contracts required the new companies to not
only manage the system, but in the first five years to
expand the existing pipeline, invest $318 million, add
1.5 million customers, service 70% ofthe population,
The aims were never reached.
In 1998, the Asian financial crisis and the downfall of
Suharto changed the political landscape. Thames
Water fled to the safety of Singapore. Faced with an
immediate water crisis, Jakarta’s new governor
ordered PAM Jaya to take back the operation.
ACT 2: JAKARTA
After the pressure of the British
government (“breaching of the
contract would weaken confidence in
Indonesia as a place to invest,”) the
agreement was made to let Thames
Water return.
Water services in Jakarta’s rich,
middle-class and industrial areas
improved. However, most poor
communities remain without piped
water due to unaffordable connection
charges.
ACT 2: JAKARTA
According to PAM Jaya engineer Feri Watna, “the
companies…just came in and robbed everything
that we had. We already had the distribution
networks, all those pipes, the water installations,
the consumers and everything else.”
ACT 3: MOUNDOU
>>MOUNDOU, CHAD,
2005.
ACT 3: MOUNDOU
In 2000 Veolia - Vivendi received a 30-year
operation and management contract for
Tchadienne d’Electricite et de l’Eau (STEE), the
company in charge of water and electricity
provision in the country.
International Development Institutions granted
Vivendi with more than US$ 13 millions for the
operation.
Vivendi agreed to freeze electricity prices but
quickly complained that the infrastructure was
insufficient and increased the cost of supplying
the government from the Farcha oil refinery.
ACT 3: MOUNDOU
In 2004 a cholera epidemic broke
in the city of Moundou. At least 9
persons died.
The cause was the water
consumption from the polluted
river Logone.
The Panafrican news agency reported that the city had
experienced water shortage and quality problems for weeks.
The first world-wide water company, Veolia, was not able to
repair an urban pumping station. It was expensive. For a month
many houses did not have access to any kind of water in a
semi-arid country, therefore many people got water from the
Logone river, provoking the collera epidemic.
ACT 3: MOUNDOU
In August 2005 Veolia, dropped out of the
country, five years after its arrival. Neither the
US$13 million financing nor the Cholera case
has been further investigated.
ACT 4: MY TOWN
>>PICANYA RAVINE,
700 M. FROM MY PARENTS’
HOME. 10/31/2004
ACT 4: MY TOWN
The 31st october 2004 a great amount of sewage “appeared”
misteriously in the ravine of Picanya. Someone had leaked it
the previous night.
The Picanya ravine is one of the fluvial courses that flow into
the marsh of Albufera, the most important natural park in
Valencia.
ACT 4: MY TOWN
At least 2 km of the course were flooded with the
sewage, polluting fauna and flora. One of the causes
of the spill was the sewage works of the city of
Torrent. They had spilled wastewater the previous
night.
This sewage works is managed by a enterprise of the
SUEZ group, the same that was expelled from El Palo
in 2005. It was privatised at the beginning of the 90’s
Though incidents like this, privatisation of water
systems has increased sharply in Valencia province
during the 90’s.
ACT 4: MY TOWN
LA SITUACIÓ AL 1992
Sagunt
València
Cullera
Gandia
Oliva
Públic
Grup Aigües de València
Egevasa
Públic
Seasa
Avsa
Emivasa
Omnium Ibérico
Aigües del’horta
Hidra
Aigües de Cullera
SAUR
AGBAR -SUEZ
MIXTA AJUNT -SUEZ
PÚBLIC
ACT 5: WHO ARE THEY?
SUEZ, VEOLIA & RWE, THE LORDS OF THE WATER
Suez is a multinational corporation on water and
waste management and gas and electricity services
based in France.
It’s the leader in private water management sector in
Argentina, Brazil, Chile and China, with expansion
plans all over Latin America.
Apart from the case of Bolivia, it has been reported
cases of general corruption, briberies, unaffordable
tariff increases, misappropiation of public founds and
water pollution in countries like Great Britain, Brazil or
France.
ACT 5: WHO ARE THEY?
Veolia, apart from the case of Chad, has been accused of illegal
purchasing, cases of environmental degradation and violations
of environmental regulations, briberies, deficiencies in
management (3181 in Puerto Rico), in over 14 countries.
The first world-wide water managemernt company, has a net
revenue of $ 3596 milion and until 2003 had this empire:
ACT 5: WHO ARE THEY?
German-owned RWE AG made its name in the
energy sector, but through acquisitions, it’s now a
leader in the water industry and has a revenue of
$5090 million.
Thames Water, (RWE in England), has repeatedly
been found to have committed environmental and
public health violations and paid over $1 million in
fines.
Almost 1 hm3 of water are lost daily in Thames
Water’s operations in London –enough to supply
500,000 homes.
August 2004: 600,000 cubic meters of untreated
sewage leaked into River Thames after a rainstorm.
ACT 5: WHO ARE THEY?
Water management privatisation is not always the
solution for water quality and availability problems.
Public sector exists!
They increase benefit reducing costs, but workers
and public health are the victims.
They make business with a natural resource, that
should be a right, not a business.
A local council that manage water can be voted and
controlled, but a private company with a 30-year
contract, not.
Though hundreds of crimes and legal violations,
WB, IMF and especially EU keep in silence.
FINAL ACT: The World Water Forum
MEXICO D.F.
03/22/2006
Final act: The show of the WWF
“All human beings have the right to water in sufficient
quantity and quality to meet their basic needs,as well as for
sanitation, a key factor for human health and the
preservation of ecosystems.”
Final declaration of the 4th World Water Forum, México DF,
22nd march 2006, supported from representatives of more
than 140 countries, including Blair government.
“The success of water policy will not be measured in
billions of dollars, but in millions of lives saved or kept from
disease, in hundreds of millions of people for whom access
to water and sanitation will no longer be a daily fight”
Jacques Chirac, friend of SUEZ chairman
Final act: The show of the WWF
Any of the 22 documents approved, mentioned any case of
corruption or malfunction of private companies.
P. Wolfowitz, WB chairman, leader from Bush administration,
expressed that the country that refuse to privatise its water
management, will suffer a reduction in WB investments for
development.
Water consumtion in m3/person in Israel and
Palestine
Meanwhile, water wars and injustices
Keep up... Show must go on...
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Israel
Palästina
Gracias por vuestra atención!!
Thank you for your attention!!