Stay Thirsty My Fiends

[lame54]

http://www.alternet.org/water/148700/watch_out%3A_the_world_bank_is_quietly_funding_a_massive_corporate_water_grab/

Watch Out: The World Bank Is Quietly Funding a Massive Corporate Water Grab
Even though water privatization has been a massive failure around the world, the World Bank just quietly gave $139 million to its latest corporate buddy.
November 2, 2010 |

Billions have been spent allowing corporations to profit from public water sources even though water privatization has been an epic failure in Latin America, Southeast Asia, North America, Africa and everywhere else it's been tried. But don't tell that to controversial loan-sharks at the World Bank. Last month, its private-sector funding arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) quietly dropped a cool 100 million euros ($139 million US) on Veolia Voda, the Eastern European subsidiary of Veolia, the world's largest private water corporation. Its latest target? Privatization of Eastern Europe's water resources.

"Veolia has made it clear that their business model is based on maximizing profits, not long-term investment," Joby Gelbspan, senior program coordinator for private-sector watchdog Corporate Accountability International, told AlterNet. "Both the World Bank and the transnational water companies like Veolia have clearly acknowledged they don't want to invest in the infrastructure necessary to improve water access in Eastern Europe. That's why this 100 million euro investment in Veolia Voda by the World Bank's private investment arm over the summer is so alarming. It's further evidence that the World Bank remains committed to water privatization, despite all evidence that this approach will not solve the world's water crisis."

All the evidence Veolia needs that water grabs are doomed exercises can be found in its birthplace of France, more popularly known as the heartland of water privatization. In June, the municipal administration of Paris reclaimed the City of Light's water services from both of its homegrown multinationals Veolia and Suez, after a torrent of controversy. That's just one of 40 re-municipilazations in France alone, which can be added to those in Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America and more in hopes of painting a not-so-pretty picture: Water privatization is ultimately both a horrific concept and a failed project.

"It's outrageous that the World Bank's IFC would continue to invest in corporate water privatizations when they are failing all over the world," Maude Barlow, chairwoman of Food and Water Watch and the author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Fight for the Right to Water, told AlterNet. "A similar IFC investment in the Philippines is an unmitigated disaster. Local communities and their governments around the world are canceling their contracts with companies like Veolia because of cost overruns, worker layoffs and substandard service."

The Philippines is an excellent example of water privatization's broken model. After passing the Water Crisis Act in 1995, the Philippines landed a $283 million privatization plan managed partially by multinational giants like Suez and Bechtel. After some success, everything fell apart after 2000, and it wasn't long before tariff prices repeatedly increased, water service and quality worsened, and public opposition skyrocketed. Today, some Filipinos still don't have water connections, tariffs have increased from 300 to 700 percent in some regions, and outbreaks of cholera and gastroenteritis have cost lives and sickened hundreds...

[de novo]

1. Capitalist fuckers will privatize air when they figure out how.

[SammyWinstonJack]

4. Don't give them any ideas.

:evilgrin:

[leeroysphitz]

5. It's coming.

[Octafish]

2. ENRON was moving into the water privatization field.

The episode gives us an idea of the kind of people involved: crooks and traitors.

Thank you for a most important post, lame54.

[SecularMotion]

3. Our town rejected Veolia in 2004

In 2004, Veolia, the largest water and wastewater corporation in the world, proposed a deal. In return for control over the local water system in Lee, Massachusetts, the company promised to save the town $6 million over the next 20 years. Immediately after Veolia proposed privatization, the town reacted.

Community members demanded that town selectmen obtain more information before moving ahead. Local residents discussed the pitfalls of privatization in the local paper, the Berkshire Eagle, referencing the failure of water privatization elsewhere in the U.S. Most of all, people simply did not want to lose control of water to a company concerned only with the bottom line.

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/private-vs-public/usa/lee-ma/

[leeroysphitz]

6. We MUST stop these dirty bastards from stealing our water by ANY means necessary. n/t

[woodsprite]

7. Can I just move to another planet now, before the Repubs and other

associated crooks, liars, and thieves ruin any more of it?

[dgibby]

8. Good article. Thanks for posting.

Did you mean Fiends or Friends? Not too late to edit.

[lame54]

9. No edit needed

[lame54]

10. .

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. "Hydraulic Empire".

Without us, you have no damn water.