Ebb and Flow of Privatized Water – From Buenos Aires to Atlanta, From Mozambique to France

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/2014/12/04/ebb-flow-privatized-water-buenos-aires-atlanta-mozambique-france/

Water was just one of many public sectors, from energy to health, that could be transformed by privatization. The fact that one month earlier, in April 2000, the people of Cochabamba, Bolivia, rose up and threw out the construction giant Bechtel for its unwanted takeover of their water services was considered an exception – the result of the California corporation unwisely “raising prices too much.”

But Cochabamba was not a one-off; it was in fact the start of a global rebellion that is reversing the tide on privatization and is sure to have an impact that ripples well beyond water utilities.

A new report by Transnational Institute, “Here to Stay – Water Remunicipalisation As a Global Trend,” unveils a growing tide of cities taking back control of their water. Only a few involved popular rebellions, but all resulted from growing dissatisfaction with corporations’ broken promises: investments that never materialized, surging tariff rates and lack of accountability and transparency.

As a result, an astonishing 180 cities from 35 countries have, in the academic jargon, “remunicipalised.” And the rate is accelerating dramatically.

Among them, noticeably, are several of the cities Tully and others heralded as the promising pioneers of privatization. Buenos Aires, despite the apparent wonders of its gushing, privately-financed fountains, decided in 2006 to remunicipalise its water. Revelations that the Suez-led consortium failed to make 57% of its promised investments and therefore completely missed its connections targets – leaving 800,000 people without water and more than a million without sewerage services – left the city with little option but to end its disastrous experiment.

Its public successor, AySA, has managed to connect 700,000 new households since the remunicipalisation and dramatically improved working conditions. Part of its success lies with an invigorated public ethos that encourages worker-community partnerships, in which workers of the newly created public company AySA have collaborated directly with marginalized communities to expand the network.

[Jesus Malverde]

1. bump..nt

[RiverLover]

2. Very good news.

Privatizing water...what were they thinking?