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March 13, 2006
Welcome to the Water Wars
The siting of the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico City is brilliantly absurd, and absurdly brilliant, for at least two reasons.
First, there is Mexico City itself: a mythic metropolis that represents all of the most intractable ills of the modern mega-city: it is the crime-ridden and corrupt hub of a nation where modernity still sits uncomfortably alongside ancient traditions and lifeways; it is tremendously overpopulated (estimates seem to vary between 8 and 18 and 23 million people, depending on your source and, I suppose, on whether you measure the part or the whole) with a significant portion of the population living in informal slums, and another significant portion living in luxurious mansions; it is incredibly polluted, and set in a deep valley where the smog sits unmoving for days and weeks at a time, turning your skin black with grime by the end of the day; and, perhaps most significantly for the water issue, it is a place where the naturally abundant ground water has been treated to all of the most illogical and massive management errors possible.
Once an island in a vast lake, Tenochtitlan was captured and conquered by the Spanish in 1521. Observers at the time, noting the city’s canals, aqueducts, floating gardens, dikes and bridges, called Tenochtitlan the Venice of the New World. But the Spanish Crown did not want a Venice, nor did they want to recognize a city more splendid than any in Europe – so they used slave labor to fill and drain the lakes, and to raze the surrounding forests. Standing in the Zocalo today, the vast plaza at the heart of the city, you would never dream that this was once an island of floating jungles, rather than an island of asphalt.
In the centuries since, the valley has been paved over and the groundwater drawn down so severely that parts of the city are now sinking at a rate of 20 inches a year. The more water is used, the more the city sinks, and the city is now drawing much of its water from aquifers hundreds of miles away, pumped over the mountains at great cost.
If any urban center represents a failure to cope sustainably with water issues, it is Mexico City.
The other reason why the World Water Forum is perfectly situated here is because prior to becoming the President of Mexico, Vicente Fox was President of Coca Cola Mexico. Thus beholden to the beverage that is second only to water in global consumption – known to the Zapatistas as “the black water of imperialism” – President Fox knows a thing or two about Public-Private Partnerships.
WHAT IS THE WORLD WATER FORUM?
For anyone outside of the Forum, it would be easy to believe that the event -- which will be held March 16 - 22 here in Mexico City -- is a UN-led international forum held for the good of us all. And while the "good of us all" part may be in the rhetoric of the World Water Council, the body in charge of the forum, the issue is much more complicated. Over the course of the week I hope to explore the meaning and the issues behind the Forum as well as to document the alternative events that will be taking place simultaneously and which I -- ever the objective documentary journalist -- will be taking part in.
In essence, this next week in Mexico City will contain two major events -- the World Water Forum itself (WWF), sponsored and run by the corporate water sector, and the Days in Defense of Water, sponsored and run by a coalition of Mexican and international ngo's and civil society groups, many of whom are loudly boycotting the WWF.
WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT
A major field of contention at the 4th World Water Forum is the question of water as a human right. At the second and third World Water Fora, the World Water Council was adamant in its refusal to recognize water as a right, taking the position instead that water is a human need – which then can be filled by the corporate water sector. Much headway has been made since then, with even the World Water Council using the language of Rights, though what is behind the rhetoric remains to be seen. Maude Barlow, a key figure in the global water struggle, co-author of the book Blue Gold, and a recent recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, has written a brief history of the Wolrd Water Forum and its civil society opposition that can be found here:
http://www.blueplanetproject.net/cms_publications/TheWorldWaterForum.pdf
Maude Barlow has also written another document, clarifying some of the issues behind water as a right, which can be found here:
http://www.blueplanetproject.net/cms_publications/TRWEng.pdf
Water is not enshrined in the United Nations Charter or in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because at the time those documents were drafted, it was hardly imaginable that clean water would become so scarce so quickly. In the last several years, much work has been done to clarify when and how the right to water does exist, largely through interpreting other rights, such as the Right to Life, the Right to Food, and the Rights of the Child. In 2002, General Comment 15 was adopted by the United Nations, emphasizing the right to water as the cornerstone of all other rights, and calling for water to be treated as a social and cultural good, not primarily an economic good.
Why all the fuss about rights? Because, with increasing water scarcity and the expanding role of private corporations in owning and operating water infrastructure, public control of water, and the assurance that all people will be allowed access to at least the minimum amount of water needed for a healthy and dignified life has become increasingly urgent. The United Nations has made water (and the accompanying issue of sanitation) a priority by drafting the Millenium Development Goals, which, among other things, aim to halve the number of people without access to safe water and sanitation by the year 2015. But how these goals will be reached is a controversial issue. The corporate sector sees its role as ensuring that these goals are met, and reaping huge profits along the way. But the many civil society actors organized to build alternatives to privatization insist that public control of water is the only way to ensure equity.
Some statistics on the privatization of water:
• At the largest scale, private water companies build, own, and operate water systems around the world with annual revenues of approximately $300 billion, excluding revenues for sales of bottled water.
• There are ten major corporate players now delivering fresh water services for profit. Between them, the three biggest -- Suez and Vivendi [recently renamed Veolia Environment] of France and RWE-AG of Germany -- deliver water and wastewater services to almost 300 million customers in over 100 countries.
• Although less than 10 percent of the world's water systems are currently under private control, at the rate private corporations are expanding, the top three alone will control over 70 percent of the water systems in Europe and North America in a decade.
• Vivendi earned $5 billion a decade ago in its water-related revenues; by 2002, it had increased to over $12 billion.
• RWE, which moved into the world market with its acquisition of Britain's Thames Water, increased its water revenue to 9,786 percent in 10 years.
• The annual revenues for the three biggest water corporations in 2001 were almost $160 billion and growing at ten percent a year -- outpacing the economies of many of the countries in which they operate.
• The World Bank has been the principle financer of privatization, lending about $20 billion to water supply projects over the last decade; the majority of World Bank loans for water in the last five years have required the conversion of public systems to private as a condition for the transaction.
• When Bolivia privatized their water systems, as a result of a World Bank initiative involving a Bechtel subsidiary, the price of water tripled.
• During the first eight years of Suez subsidiary, Aguas Argentinas S.A’s contract to provide water and sewage services to Buenos Aires, the company earned a 19 percent profit rate on its average net worth.
• Water rates, which the company said would be reduced by 27 percent, actually rose 20 percent. And Aguas Argentinas reneged on its contractual obligations to build a new sewage treatment plant; as a result, over 95 percent of the city's sewerage is now dumped directly into the Rio del Plata River.
• The government of South Africa has cut off water supplies to over 10 million people in the last two years because they could not afford to pay for their newly privatized service -- despite a constitutional guarantee of access to water for all.
• Close to 20 percent of municipal water systems in Mexico are now privatized.
• Since water services were privatized in France, customer fees have increased by 150 percent.
• The government of France reports that the post privatization drinking water of over five million people was contaminated
• Public Services International (PSI) reports that in England, between 1989 (the year water was privatized) and 1995, there was a 106 percent increase in the rate charged to customers, while the profits of the companies increased by 692 percent.
• The salary of the highest paid director of North West Water increased by 708 percent.
• As a result of these price hikes, the number of customers who have had their water disconnected has risen by 50 percent since privatization.
The World Water Council has pronounced its intentions with this year’s forum to be local control and participation. But one of the heads of the Water Council, Rene Coulomb, also happens to be President of Suez, one of the top three water companies in the world. Between Suez, Coca Cola, and the other corporate players running this show, it is little surprise that the 4th World Water Forum is expected to be contentious.
If things go according to plan, the next installments of this blog will be live reporting from the Days in Defense of Water in Mexico City, running from March 15 to March 22.
Posted by jeff at March 13, 2006 12:24 PM