Published on Monday, March 21, 2005 by the Inter-Press ServiceStefania Bianchi
Civil society groups are calling for a change of course in the European Union's approach to water and sanitation in developing countries.
A consortium of civil society groups, led by the Dutch campaign groups Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Both ENDS, and the Belgian non-governmental organization (NGO) 11.11.11, says the European Union (EU) must end its preoccupation with private sector expansion and instead support "workable public water delivery options."
In a letter sent to EU commissioner for development humanitarian aid Louis Michel to coincide with World Water Day (Mar. 22), the group of NGOs says they are concerned about the way "European aid money and political influence is being used to promote policies that are not working and hinge on providing extra money to European companies, rather than meeting real development needs in water and sanitation."
The EU launched a 500 million euro (665 million dollar) Water Facility for the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries last year. The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, says the facility marks a "watershed" in EU development strategy and will drive progress towards the achievement of the millennium development goal of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 2015.
About 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, and 2.4 billion people to sanitation.
Approximately 5 percent of the world's water is run by the private sector but 95 percent of that is by European companies.
But the group of NGOs says the "water privatization wave" during the last decade has "proven a failed experiment."
"Concrete experiences in developing countries have shown that multinational water corporations are ill-equipped to deliver clean and affordable water to the poor. Private sector investment has not brought the expected financing for water and sanitation for the poor," they say in the letter.
"We believe that faced by experiences of what works combined with the failure of the global private sector, the time has come to refocus the global water debate to the key question: how to improve and expand public water delivery around the world?"
The group says that instead of developing new policies "based on what works," European governments and international financial institutions are devising "new mechanisms for attracting the private sector into water and sanitation, including various financial instruments to guarantee corporate profits."
"This ignores the fundamentals behind the private sector's failure and the fact that public utilities continue to supply water to an overwhelming majority of those with access to water in developing countries," the letter says.
The NGOs are calling for the EU to provide funding without "blatant political conditions", and say the bloc should use its powers to influence other international institutions.
"European public water utilities should be enlisted to assist in meeting the water MDGs through not-for-profit public-public partnerships. In international fora, the EU must use its influence to reorientate the policies of the World Bank and other international financing institutions to end privatization conditions linked to financial support to those requesting it."
Olivier Hoedeman, research coordinator at the CEO says the group's appeal is timely. "We are writing this letter now because there has been a major change over the last few years and it's become obvious that private water companies are not the people to deliver affordable water to the poor," he told IPS.
"The moment has come to say that public water is working and delivers to 95 percent of the population also in developing countries. We need to look at how to make it work for the rest of the population. The EU should really take the lead in promoting this for a number of reasons - it's a major donor and so has a big responsibility.. There is also enormous amount of expertise within European public water utilities and this expertise needs to be mobilized to achieve the MDGs," he added.
During his confirmation hearing at the European Parliament in October, Commissioner Michel said public services were "key to meeting basic needs in developing countries" and that "essential services should be exempt from market pressures."
While the NGOs welcome Michel's comments, they insist that he must act upon them.
"Michel said some very encouraging things and made it clear that he does not support privatization as the solution to the water crisis, so that is something to build on. He now needs to make that clear to his staff in the Commission and we hope that he will follow up on those statements," said Hoedeman.
The civil society groups say that such action must come over the next 12 months.
"We urge you to ensure that by the next World Water Forum in Mexico in March 2006 the EU will champion a different approach to water and sanitation in developing countries," they said. "By providing the necessary financial and political support for workable public solutions, the EU will be part of the solution rather than the problem."
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines05/0321-04.htm
