Germany's hypocrisy over Greece water privatisation

[Ichingcarpenter]

Germany has been criticised for pushing Greece to sell off its water utilities when many of Europe’s largest cities, including Berlin, are buying back theirs


Under the terms of the bailout agreement approved by the Greek parliament today, Greece has pledged to support an existing programme of privatisation, which includes large chunks of the water utilities of Greece’s two largest cities – Athens and Thessaloniki.


There is ongoing debate about water privatisation and the role of business. Across Europe a wave of austerity-driven privatisation proposals has led to protests in Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. At the same time, some of northern Europe’s largest cities, including Paris and Berlin, are buying back utilities they sold just last decade.

President of the Thessaloniki water company trade union George Argovtopoulos said a move to a for-profit model would raise prices for consumers and degrade services.



http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/aug/14/germanys-hypocrisy-over-greece-water-privatisation







Water privatisation: a worldwide failure


http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/jan/30/water-privatisation-worldwide-failure-lagos-world-bank

[djean111]

1. Water privatisation: a worldwide goal for corporations.

Buried in the new "trade" agreements. The Nestle CEO who blandly told us that water is not a human right knew very well that privatizing water is on the corporate agenda.