VII.+Privatization+of+Water

Water Scarcity Home Page

__** Privatization of Water **__

=Introduction (by Jeremiah R.)= Water, it gives people life, and it can also take it away. Water companies across the globe a making water sources private and selling in for a hefty price. There are pro’s and con’s of privatizing water. There are also a few reasons why people across the world hate that people can buy water rights and sell it for more than they can afford. All around the world water is being bought and sold and in some places for way to much and it is starting riots as well as breakouts of sickness. Here are a few of the pros. First, countries with a monopoly control over the water can basically control the people. The water companies can control everything they do by just moving the prices around, most of the families are so poor that they cannot afford it in the first place let alone with them jacked sky high. The companies make money which provides for another family somewhere. The companies that get the money from those countries pay thousands of workers which in turn pay for some odd more thousands of peoples’ food.

 Some of the cons. There is more sickness because of the poorer families going elsewhere to get water that is contaminated. It can also lead to death for some of the people because they cannot get water, like in South Africa they keep there tap open because they turn off the water after a certain amount of time (found in the movie we watched). Some people have to walk for miles to get water for there family that they do not have to pay for. Most of the time they find a pond that is like a Petri dish that is full of bacteria and other viruses. So the cycle continues people get sick and get scared then they get tired of paying so much for so little and they get ting sick again.

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= = =Role of Government (by Spencer M. and Lindsey P.)= Water is complex to Privatize but when the government allows water to become private human rights are violated. In the third world countries,such as Bolivia, water rights have been fought for by the people. In the civil unrest when the Bolivian government was being ‘bought out’ by the Bechtel water company protesters were gathered and an “unarmed seventeen year old boy was shot and killed. At least 175 other people were injured during the government crack down.” 6 This is only on e of many occasions when the government loses control and violence breaks out. Fortunately, this boy's death was not in vain. “In 2000, Bechtel was forced to leave Bolivia” 7 . = = =Role of Corporations (by Steven G.)= In the world there are two major water corporations which rank 79th and 78th of Fortune’s Global 100 List. This list is one in which lists the most gross revenue and profile of businesses. This is complied on the international level where all the businesses of the world are gathered on one page.

The two major water corporations which rank 79th and 78th are named Suez, which is owned by the French, and energy conglomerate RWE, which is owned by Germany. There used to be also Vivendi which was ranked the 51st on the list but has dropped off the list.

The Suez Company first started in 1858 to manage the Suez Canal but over the years had grown to gain at least four different US corporations. It has their control of at least 34 cities in the US and 100s of other countries around the world have their water sources being owned by Suez. In 2002 their revenue was a total of 6.4 billion Euros which makes them the largest water corporation in the world. But they are in debt at the time of 2002, at least in 950 million dollars. As a shareholder in this multinational corporation it is no longer profitable but that does nothing good to the customers of this corporation. In addition to this they have also lost most of their high profile contracts like Atlanta (US) and Puerto Rico. This has also forced the high profile contractors to find other companies. For example like Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Manila (the Philippines). Now their top priority is to slash the cost of maintaining the buildings, firing extra staff and raising the prices of the water. In the end it is all to get more of a profit.

The RWE has a very bad practice of not caring of what the health environment and public are. When it does happen they do know that they are causing it and plead guilty and pay the additional fines that crop up. When RWE was the largest energy giants in the world they acquired Thames Water and which through Thames Water is acquiring American Water Works. Just with the energy production they have 640 subsidiaries world wide and with average annual revenue of at least 50 million dollars. Thames Water is the largest publicly held US-based water utility with 16 million customers in 29 of the 50 states of the US. In addition to that they also have three provinces of Canada. American Water also controls investments in Central and Latin America. The most important ones are in Puerto Rico and Chile. It also has a separate company called American Water Services that deal mainly with engineering projects and consultations municipal, military and industrial users. In 1992 Thames Water has gotten a company called Ashbrook. Ashbrook specialize in engineering components that are related to water. (8)

= = =Corruption (by Spencer M.)= (8) The ruling power will do almost anything to remain in power for as long as possible. Whether it is by continuing a war or buy votes.Third World Conditions in Mexico are caused by the lack of means of water. When soda is cheaper to purchase than water;soda will be purchased. Not to mention the housing causing stressors to the environment. Now these Water Conflicts are mostly due to the lack of access to clean water. The water companies will ignore sanitation laws to increase revenue and the governing power wont step in because of the votes or money being contributed by these companies.

=Summary (by Steven G. and Lindsey P.)= What we have learned doing this project is that water companies will ignore sanitation laws to have higher profits. We also learned that if water is privatized then most likely the companies will raise the cost. When that happens then the poorer families will have to find other sources of water. If they can not find it then they have to resort to drinking the more dirty water and hope that they will not get sick from drinking it. What we have seen is that usually the water companies are very slow in response to any problems of their own operations. If something breaks and it is leaking sewage they will take some time in order to fix it. Sometimes they will not fix any kind of problems unless it is brought directly to their attention and there are witnesses. It is the duty of the water companies that first caused the problem to decontaminate the area and clean up any leftover sewage.

References: 1.Citizen. (n.d.). "Who are the major water Companies?" Retrieved 3 December 2010 from the Citizen website: [|__http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/general/majorwater/__] .  2.Citizen. (n.d.). "RWE-Thames Water/American Water Works" Retrieved 3 December 2010 from the Citizen website: [|__http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/general/majorwater/rwe/__] .  3.Citizen. (n.d.). "Suez-Ondeo/United Water" Retrieved 3 December 2010 from the Citizen Website: [|__http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/general/majorwater/suez/__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 4.Citizen. (n.d.). "a report by Public Citizen" Retrieved 3 December 2010 from the Citizen Website: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.citizen.org/documents/profilesuez.pdf__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> 5.Citizen. (n.d.). "RWE/Thames Water A Corporate Profile" Retrieved 6 December 2010 from the Citizen Website: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.citizen.org/documents/RWEProfile.pdf__] <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (6,7)Heston, R. (2002-2010). Problems with the privatization of water and water companies. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">//Helium// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 8pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, Retrieved from http://www.helium.com/items/1721648-problems-with-the-privatization-of-water-and-water-companies 8."life and death graph." life death rate. (water privatization conflict) copyright 2002. http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/vanovedr/ Water Scarcity Home Page