Please read and let me know how you analyze Would this article: The Water Crisis: Analysis and Celine ProposalsBy TanWater and Sanitation is the first of five priority action plan for theWEHAB Areas Under the post-WSSD implementation of sustainable development. The Challenge of Providing safe and clean water and sanitary requirements foran Increasing world population, in the face of rising inequities, isphenomenal. Forty percent of the world? S population, in 80 Countries, Water Shortages Currently sufferfrom serious. A one billion people worldwide access LACK Tosaf drinking water and 2. 4 one billion people access to LACK adequatesanitation (Global Economic Outlook 2002). Yet, The Biggest Threat to universal access to clean water and adequatesanitation IS NOT mother nature intended corporate globalization. Privatisationof aggressively Water Is Exported to the Developing World rubricof Under the Poverty Reduction and debt relief strategies, free trade and economicdevelopment. By turning a scarce resource Into An Economic commodity, TheWorld? S Economic leaders and policy planners claim Existing waterresources That Can Be Efficiently managed and Consumed in Accordance withcompetitive market principles. Thesis claims are not only misguided, theyare deceitful. There are Two Being Projected myths: first, that ‘Placing aprice Will it encourage water conservation and wise water consumption. Secondly, That Will market competition lead to more consumer choice andbetter services. In reality, the Water Sector IS Monopolistic placedin When the hands of the market. It Is Alarming That Malthus the commodification Ofwat Guide Is Now heralded as the answer to the world? S water woes. Monopoly and Subsidies for corporationsWater Is A US $ 400 one billion global business, controlled by a Handful ofEuropean transnational companies and consortia derived, namely Frenchmultinationals Vivendi and Suez Lyonnaise, SAUR and British water companiesThames Water, Anglian Water and United Utilities. The overall drive of water towardsprivatisation Services IS THUS not Pursued by a collective ofdemocratically Elected Governments acting in the interest of the world? Spopulation, by order of a cartel corporations motivated by profit and marketconquest. To make Matters Worse, These companies are subsidised by Their Governments (Taxpayers and Their invariably)-through support from domestic exportcredit Agencies, and by multilateral development banks, Such as the Worldbank and the African Development Bank. They Are Also subsidised bydeveloping Countries Who raise credit from international financialinstitutions to upgrade water systems Their Prior to private takeover. Thiscorporate Subsidy Comes at the Expense of Consumers, Most Of Them indeveloping Countries, Who are made to pay for What is a Necessity of Life. For the poor this means no access to water. Additional loans to Facilitate the privatization process are raised bydeveloping country from Governments and multilateral bilateral sources. Often, loans are aussi thesis Used to finance the creation of year? Enablingenvironment? Water and Wastewater for foreign investors. This includes local thedrafting of investor protection legislation to guard againstre-nationalization of the Water Industry and to Provide for heftycompensation for Any Attempt to renege (for Good Reasons) Against theprivatisation contracts. In Many Cases, corporate access to a Developing Country? Ispaved s water system by a loan or debt relief conditionality requiring the poor country to privatize orindebted icts Water and Sanitation services. Forexample, the IMF insisted That privatizing Tanzania Dar es Salaam icts Waterand Sewerage Authority (DAWS) as a condition of debt relief icts packageunder the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative. Fallacy of privatisationExperience That shows the privatization of water services delivery cannot ensureuniversal of safe water and efficient sanitation. Additional Financial Privatisationimposes on Government obligations. Theys May Have tobail out privatization project failed, and the shoulder aussi Costly legalrisks rescinding of a privatization contract with a wealthy transnational, Even If the company? S IS performance unsatisfactory. Argentina, Hungary andBolivia Have Found That the legal claims for compensation by private watercompanies in Tucuman, Szeged and Cochabamba respectively, HAVE madeterminating contracts prohibitively expensive. The dominance of foreign water companies and the liberalised investmentclimate – Mostly Facilitated by structural adjustment, and now Under tradeagreements Including Those Under the WTO? in developing countries willalso Ensure That a large portion of profits from increased water privatization willnot to the Countries Themselves Abroad INSTEAD purpose are repatriated. The imposition of full-cost water pricing as a result of privatization willonly Deprive more and more people of access to clean safe water and poor byforcing Communities to seek alternative sources of water forconsumption, Such as untreated well water and water from sewage-riddenurban rivers. Forced upon rich and poor, industrial Consumers and Producers, similarrates for water use aussi Will result in Greater Income disparity and deepersocial cleavages, Leading to High risk of civil unrest. In 2000, WAS martiallaw Declared in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba as a result ofcity-wide riots precipitated by high water prices. A private consortium ledby International Water Prices Doubled the water to city residents. Waterbills Went up by 35% and some, That Twice. The World Bank supportedfull-cost water pricing and Prohibited Any use of ITS structural adjustmentloans subsidization to water services for the poor. Future Fear and WSSD outcomesThere Is No agreement on the text in the WSSD Draft Plan of Implementationthat commits Governments to Supporting the UN Millennium Development Goalof Halving, by 2015, the proportion of people Unable to reach, or AFFORD, Safe Drinking Water and Improved sanitation access (paragraphs 7 and 7 [alt]). However, The Most Pressing Concerns over universal coverage of water services are not andsanitation Expressed In These bracketed paragraph. Rather, They Are Reflected in the general LACK of Political willdemonstrated by Developed Countries to address the systemic issues leadingto a crisis of Sustainable Development in the South, and the alarmingemphasis Placed on public-private partnership implementation ofsustainable Funding and development programs. The relinquishing of Responsibility bydeveloped marked-IS Countries by Their reluctance to commit to specificdisbursements of ODA and by Repeated references to voluntary initiatives partnershipsand as a Means of financing programmatic WSSD outcomes. In the lack of firm Commitments by Governments, Type II partnerships onwater and sanitation services only Will Increase Private Sector involvementin this crucial area. The Private Sector IS Already Identified as a keyimplementer of the? Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) for AllInitiative? Involving 28 Countries, six UN Agencies, the World Bank, andthe Asian and African Development Banks. Another Major Threat to universal access to water and sanitation isliberalisation Under the WTO? S rules. Although Member countries to liberalize at theright Have Their Own Pace, and Events Choose not to open up asector Under the WTO? S General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), thereis Especially Tremendous pressure on Developing Countries to liberalize. Malthus in the Ongoing Negotiations at the WTO, aresubmitting extensive Developed Countries? Requests? That seek access to Every Sector in thedeveloping world, Including water and sanitation services. If Succumb Developing Countries, privatization of water services initiatedunder World Bank and IMF structural adjustment programs Could becomepermanent Under the binding rules of the WTO. Once a country is locked intothe GATS regime, the right of government to Regulate icts liberalizedservice Sectors Will Be Diminished, paving the way for foreigntransnationals to enter the domestic market. Any Attempt to reverse thesituation Would Be subject to WTO disciplines and penalties. Any real effort to Achieve the Millennium Development Goal must thereforeinclude Commitment to review loan conditionalities and imposeprivatisation Countries That Be must not pressured to offer water servicesunder GATS liberalization. Essential Services Should Be Exempted from GATS. Conclusion Privatization Does not address the deeper issues Ofwat Economic and ecological Shortages. Questions of Why There Are Shortages in water under water stress countriesnot are not resolved by shifting Responsibility ofservice provision to private companies. Water management and waterdistribution aussi are key Factors in Determining Water Supply and universalcoverage. Until UNLESS Rich Countries and Their Commitment FulFil toprovide resources for developing countries to build solid, cost-effectivewater Which delivery systems support the Needs of the world? S populationequitably and ecologically, the water woes of the world Will not go away. At the Same Time, all Governments Need to Recognise and support thediversity and replication of community water management systems andpractices. Thesis in Many Countries Have Proven To Be The Most sustainableapproach to rural water management for rural populations. The WSSD processand the last 10 years of the work of the CSD Have Called for good and sustainable development in bestpractices. However, Where water resources areconcerned the privatization trend and emphasis are provendestructive Which HAS. Firm Commitments Must Be Made at the WSSD to reverse the trend of corporatetakeover in the Water and Sanitation Sector, Rather Than to Accelerate theprocess of privatization and corporate monopoly. Undermining the sovereignpower of Governments to Regulate supply of water in Their Countries andpassing the bucket onto private Transnationals to steward the world? S waterresources Would Probably Be A Most anti-development and anti-ecological step.
