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Kennedy: Don't privatize water
By Tom Evans, CNN
Every eight seconds, somewhere in the world a child dies from waterborne diseases because the parents cannot afford clean water, according to Maude Barlow, founder of the Blue Planet Project.
"When you add the for-profit motive into water supplies, some people are going to die," Barlow told CNN's Christiane Amanpour Thursday. "Water must be declared to be something that belongs to all of us, which is not that it's a free-for-all, but that it must be equitably divided and shared - and only government can do that.
Barlow, who is one of the most outspoken advocates of what activists call "water justice," said water is a public trust and must not be privatized.
"The reality is that there is more demand than supply, and the increase in demand and decrease in supply is growing, so it makes a big difference how we're going to decide who's going to allocate water."
A third of the world's population is suffering from water shortages, according to the International Water Management Institute. The United Nations estimates that by 2025, two-thirds of the population will be affected by scarcities.
Those shortages are already the source of local and regional conflict. In Yemen for example, which is at the center of the current al Qaeda terrorist scare, researchers say up to 80 percent of rural disputes are related to water.
The debate over how to alleviate those shortages has intensified in recent years, pitching advocates of privatization programs against those who say water is a public good and that its collection and distribution should remain in the public sector.
A recent United Nations Human Development Report said, "The dialogue has generated more heat than light."
"Some privatization programs have produced positive results" the U.N. said, "but the overall record is not encouraging. From Argentina to Bolivia, and from the Philippines to the United States, the conviction that the private sector offers a 'magic bullet' for unleashing the equity and efficiency needed to accelerate progress towards water for all has proven to be misplaced."
But the U.N. also said many publicly-owned utilities are failing the poor, combining inefficiency and unaccountability in management, with inequity in financing and pricing.
The head of Aquafed, the International Federation of Private Water Operators, told Amanpour that purifying water and transporting it to each individual house has a cost.
Gerard Payen said, "The government has to decide who should bear this cost. Should it be borne by taxpayers or by water users or by both, by a mix?" He said different countries have different answers to that question.
"We only serve 10 percent of the world's population. But we are in those countries with the most needs. In developing countries in the past 10 years, we were able to provide access to water for more than 25 million people," he added.
But leading environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., founder and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, told Amanpour the privatization of water supply - what Kennedy called "the commoditization of water supply" - is morally wrong.
"It's intrinsically a government function. It has to remain in the hands of the government. The government has a responsibility to all the people, and that this is part of the commons," he added.
"And the law of the commons is that whether you're rich or poor, everybody has the right to the public trust asset," Kennedy said."Nobody has the right to use it in a way that will diminish or injure its use and enjoyment by others."
@camanpour on Twitter
water essential for life should be equitably distributed and made available as fulfilling basic human right to sustainence and survival to be ensured by the rulers of a state.however the western hemisphere and the citizens of the countries therin are protecting and safeguarding their control by defending their borders from poor ,hungry and in near future thirsty immigrants legal or illegal.the world order boundaries have to change to allow double or more number of inhabitants of dry arid africa and southasians to have a chance to survive .australia,newzealand borders should be opened for at least fivetimes more immigrants than their present population.
As the world warms, and water and other life giving resources become scarcer as a result, war will be the inevitable result. Most wars can be traced ultimately to resources-whether our wars in the mideast over oil, or wars over water and arable land in Africa.
Have anybody know about the old "tragedy of the commons"?.
It is a classic of economics theory and it tells you that when a comodity is given free is wasted. That is why water , for drinking and agriculture and energy must have a price.
Then it is goverments planning duty to plan and construct all the water ways to deliver it to all potential users at a price.
However the allocation of the water should be left to market forces because goverment burocracy will always be corrupt,specially in poor countries where wateer might be scarce.
The solution to give water to all sectors of the population is to create jobs , so they can earn enough to buy water.
I must say this was a very biased show, and a very biased and misleading presentation of the issue.
90 percent of all water distribution in developing countries is in the hands of governments. The main player to blame for the 1.1 billion people lacking access to water is thus poor country governments, which lack the capacity, the incentives and often the will to serve its people. Saying that "water is a human right and that water needs to remain public" is a catchphrase arguing for status quo, i.e. dying children. An academic study of Argentina found that privatization actually saved the lives of thousands of children. http://www.iadb.org/res/publications/pubfiles/pubS-233.pdf
Maud Barlow's statement above that one child dies each second because their parents cannot pay for water is true. But the main reason for this is that they are not connected to any water mains, due to government failure. They are therefore forced to rely on water from the alternative market (truckers, remote standpipes etc) where the price of water is on average twelve times higher.
Privatization and raising the price of mains water would give the incentives and the capital to extend the network to the unserved, which would then give them cheaper water. If, as in Chile and South Africa, combined with policies targetting the poor, this has excellent results.
Regarding the track record of privatizations, problems have been due to corruption and mismanagement by the government. Nevertheless, more people have been given access to clean and safe water in almost all cases, if the ones called failures.
The UN is right in saying that privatization is no magic bullet. Such thinga rarelky exist in the real world. But it is an alternative that deserves serious consideration with the present alternative in mind.
May I recommend my book: Water for sale. http://korta.nu/459a
I think that indeed a more balanced view is appropriate in this delicate matter. Governments should retain complete control over assets such as water. Preferrably under binding legal international arbitration to prevent conflicts and wars.
If governments however decide that the distribution of water can better be carried out by the private sector, than that is their good right, as long as they can guarantee that no-one should be cut from water if they can't afford to pay the bills. The same system applies in most of Western Europe where utility companies can't just switch off electricity to households that cannot afford their monthly bills.
The absolute vetoing of private water distribution would entail that public authorities who cannot raise the funds for water distribution (as is the case in many Third World countries) simply will not be able to provide water to their citizens.
Mrs Barlow mixed two things in the debate : she linked the death of millions of children to the private water companies. Its like blaming the road construction companies for the million deaths in traffic accidents. Private water companies are necessary if the local governments do not have the expertise to improve the water quality in their country. Of course, the same governments should look after the right for basic needs as electricity, water, heating. In Belgium energy is privatised but people with low income can have a minimum of energy for free. Also PPP contract can combine the best of two worlds : public private partnerships.
Also the comments of Mr Kennedy – privatization is morally wrong-are misplaced. You cannot blame companies who bring safe drinking water where many public utilities are inefficient.
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