AGUA RÍOS Y PUEBLOS

Privatisation and the Human Right to Clean Drinking Water

PRIVATIZATION AND THE HUMAN RIGHT TO CLEAN DRINKING WATERToday, 1.2 billion people do not have guaranteed access to drinking water, leading to the deaths of 10,000 people each day, 4,000 of which are children younger than 5 years old, who are dying because they drink water contaminated by sewage discharge.Toxic pollution by industrial, oil, mining and agricultural activities are silently poisoning millions of people. In particular, contamination by cyanide and heavy metals from open pit mining, often situated in river headwaters, is devastating the health of entire communities, often indigenous.In recent decades, the appropriation of nature for private interests has joined the pressure for privatization of water services imposed by the World Bank to exacerbate the vulnerability of the poorest. Against this, social movements are promoting new models of public participation and social control in recognition that access to safe water is a human right. This is reflected in the new constitutions of countries like Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela.

HOW DOES AFRICA SHATTER AN ILLUSION?

In the late 1990s, the management of 190 urban water systems in Ghana, then controlled by the public company Ghana Water Sewerage Corporation (GWSC, which later became the GWCL), faced a crisis. The company was US$344 million in debt due to inefficiency and corruption. The World Bank was promoting its “Program of Economic Recovery and Structural Adjustment” in line with the prevailing neo-liberal orthodoxy. Given this program, the government began to raise water tariffs by 140% in 1998. Finally in 2006, Aqua Vitens Rand was awarded a contract based on the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.

Far from improving, water service actually worsened. Water cuts generated such outrage that the government had to commission an audit. The findings were devastating. The commitments to improving the quality had not been met, with the tragic result that water treatments failed to neutralize the arsenic, lead, cyanide, copper and zinc from open-pit mining operations.

The Coalition Against Water Privatization (a broad alliance of community and religious groups, unions and civic society from 24 African countries) merged with the African Water Network to fight for the human right to drinking water.

“IT’S THE PEOPLE’S WATER, CARAJO!”

In February and March 2000, public protests broke out in the city of Cochabamba, in response to the skyrocketing price of water. In 1999, under pressure from the World Bank, Bolivia granted a 40-year privatisation lease to Aguas del Tunari, a subsidiary of the San Francisco-based Bechtel Corporation, giving it control over the water on which more than half a million people depend. Immediately the company tripled or even quadrupled water rates for some of South America’s poorest families. The rate hike meant up to half of their monthly income went to paying for water.

Outraged citizens took to the streets to demand that the privatization and the rate hikes be reversed. A general strike shut down the city for four days. Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested, scores injured and
several killed by police. The government declared a state of emergency. Soon after, the executives of Aguas del Tunari fled from Cochabamba and its water system was handed over to the citizens’ group, which had coordinated the opposition to privatization.

“LIVES IN EXCHANGE FOR GOLD”

>Mining company Yanacocha runs a massive open-cast gold mine in Cajamarca Province in the Peruvian Andes. The extraction of more than 500,000 metric tons of rocks per day from the headwaters of the Rejo, Llaucano and Cajamarquino rivers causes major harm to the mountains, and also to the lakes, rivers and aquifers that supply drinking water to the region’s towns and villages.

The large-scale use of cyanide to leach gold out of the ore has led to serious contamination of water courses. As a consequence, the inhabitants of the Cajamarca region suffer serious health problems; children have been particulaly impacted. Yanacocha’s mine has destroyed an area of 26,000 hectares and aims to expand by a further 25,000 hectares, despite the vehement opposition of the local population.