Latest News on Water Privatization around the World

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Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:08:00 -0400 (EDT)

" Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch "

<fwwatch

Currents: Latest News on Water Privatization around the World

 

 

Currents

 

Your Monthly Newsletter on Water Privatization around the World

 

April 2006

 

For all the latest news about the issues you care about, check out our

brand new blog!

--Your Water for All Team

Wenonah, Maj, Sara, Victoria and Jessica

water

 

In this issue:

 

- Bush and EPA put drinking water at risk: Take action by May 1!

- U.S. mayors make a splash at RWE's annual shareholder meeting in Germany

- The promise of affordability in Detroit slowly emerges

- The Inter-American Development Bank and the politics of water

- Financing water for all... or just a few?

- Read our latest reports and newsletters

- Join us in welcoming Jessica Roach, our new organizer with the Water

for All Campaign!

 

Bush and EPA put drinking water at risk:

Take action by May 1!

 

The Bush administration is proposing to weaken health protections

under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This change may result in up to

three times or more the amount of cancer and other disease-causing

chemical contaminants in the drinking water than is currently allowed

for millions of Americans. Tell President Bush and the EPA to stop

this unprecedented attempt to undermine our environmental and public

health protections, by taking action today: just

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=115876400 & url_num=3 & url=http:\

//www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/fwwatch/campaign.jsp?campaign_K\

EY=3411

The deadline to comment is Monday, May 1, 2006.

 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed policy change

re-defines " affordability " under the Safe Drinking Water Act in a way

that will seriously undermine health protections. If the EPA proposal

stands, it would allow water utilities to cut corners and serve

contaminated drinking water, arguing that it costs too much to clean

it up, while still labeling the tap water as protective of health.

 

Instead, the administration should provide direct financial assistance

to meet drinking water standards that protect our health -not create

second-class communities that would be stuck with more contaminated

water. Click here for more information.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=115876400 & url_num=4 & url=http:\

//www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/human-rights-1/Drinking-Water-Alert%20

 

 

U.S. Mayors make a splash at RWE's annual shareholder meeting in Germany

 

Mayor Laurel Prussing of Urbana, Ill., addressed hundreds of RWE

shareholders and the corporation's top executives at its annual

meeting in Essen, Germany, April 13, with a loud and clear message:

" Our experience in Illinois has taught us that we need local control

of our water systems. We are willing to pay a fair price, and we

believe investors will benefit more from selling to us than by wasting

money on a political war while neglecting much-needed maintenance. "

RWE is the third largest private water corporation in the world and is

looking to sell American Water, the largest private water corporation

in the U.S.

 

Mayor Prussing was joined by Food & Water Watch, as well as German

allies from Wasser in Burgerhand (Water in Citizens' Hands) and

Critical Shareholders. The groups presented a joint statement signed

by mayors and elected officials from 8 communities in the U.S.,

calling on RWE to negotiate fairly with communities interested in

buying their local water utilities from the multinational corporation.

Click here to read the statement. The actions were covered by more

than 40 news outlets in the United States, plus German newspaper and

radio! Support the U.S. communities fighting for local democratic

control of their water by sending an email to RWE's CEO, Harry Roels.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=115876400 & url_num=6 & url=http:\

//www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/rewire-american-water

 

The promise of affordability in Detroit slowly emerges

After several years, where as many as 15% of households in Detroit

were disconnected from water, an affordability proposal has been

brokered between activists, the Detroit water department and the City

Council. The plan would provide a $5 million fund, which will assist

low-income residents to pay their water bills and avoid shutoffs.

Local activists, including Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, which

has lead the effort, calls the deal a victory. The Detroit City

Council is expected to vote on the issue in late April.

 

The Inter-American Development Bank and the politics of water

 

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) hasn't received nearly as

much attention as the World Bank, but its lending policies may be

doing just as much damage. In scenes reminiscent of World Bank,

International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization ministerials,

hundreds of protesters gathered outside the IDB's annual meeting in

Belo Horizonte, Brazil, April 3-5. Led by newly elected presidents Evo

Morales of Bolivia and Manuel Zelaya of Honduras, the protesters

demanded that the IDB cancel billions of dollars in debt that their

governments are being forced to repay and stop pushing policies and

projects that require privatization of water and other natural

resources. Major water privatization programs pushed by the IDB in

Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras and Nicaragua have

either collapsed completely, leaving countries with even more debt to

repay (such as Argentina and Bolivia), or are the subject of serious

controversy and social unrest. Click here for more details on the IDB.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=115876400 & url_num=7 & url=http:\

//www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/inter-american-development-bank

 

Financing water for all... or just a few?

 

The World Water Council, which organizes the undemocratic,

corporate-controlled World Water Forum, commissioned a report on

" Financing Water for All " for the 2006 Forum. A Task Force of mainly

corporate executives and financiers pulled the report together - to

think that a group like that can come up with democratic solutions to

get water for all is absurd!

 

The report offers absolutely no new solutions for financing access to

water for the poor - the people who actually lack access to water. The

only, and not very original solution, is to increase aid flows - a

message that has been heard over and over again - and enables

governments to grandstand on the issue, but rarely results in real

action to increase aid.

 

The report instead focuses on solutions that might work in

middle-income countries - solutions that are all based on richer

countries' blue prints for first-class water delivery. The panel also

reiterates solutions offered by the last commission, chaired by the

former Managing Director of the IMF, Michel Camdessus, and somehow

missed that even the World Bank has abandoned these solutions as

unusable in the water sector.

 

Maybe we should teach the Council and the panel a new word for the

next panel and see if they can do better: Equity, a word which refers

to principles of conscience, fairness and justice.

 

Read our latest reports and newsletters:

Defend the Global Commons--new issue

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=115876400 & url_num=8 & url=http:\

//www.foodandwaterwatch.org/publications/newsletters/defend-the-global-commons-m\

arch-06/pdf

 

Updated RWE corporate profile

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=115876400 & url_num=9 & url=http:\

//www.foodandwaterwatch.org/publications/reports/rwe-thames-water-a-corporate-pr\

ofile

 

 

 

 

Please join us in welcoming Jessica Roach, our new organizer with the

Water for All Campaign!

 

Jessica will be focusing her work on increasing the United States'

commitment to public water services, as well as ensuring that trade

policies don't undermine the universal human right to water. Jessica

can be reached at jroach(at)fwwatch.org