The SAWC notes with concern the negative impact of the private sector, in particular the large corporations, on water resources and water service delivery, and the role of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in this regard.
The WTO's General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) is designed to further open up the water sector to large corporate interests. GATS will exacerbate the crisis of delivery of water services. It will lead to further privatisation, more unscrupulous corporations, the introduction of pre-payment meters and more cut-offs, attachments of property and evictions. It will compromise government support to the poor and spell the death knell to the possibility of introducing free basic water. In so doing, it will flout the constitutional right to water.
The new issues pushed by the North in Doha, Qatar, including investment, competition and government procurement, further open the doors for the large corporations. The Agreement on Agricultural together with GATS undermine community food security and small-scale farming.
The WTO policies are being imposed after years of other damaging policies, notably the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural adjustment programmes and self-imposed structural adjustment in the form of Gear and Nepad.
The interlinkage of all these institutions and policies create a context in which the corporations are all powerful. They dominate governments and people and have free reign to introduce further change for the worse.
The SAWC notes with particular concern the approach of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in driving a pro-corporate agenda and gambling with our services, our rights, our health and our lives. The Ministry fails to consult on these critical issues and keeps information behind closed doors.
The government approach facilitates the expansion of South African business into the continent and allows them to profit at the expense of people of the continent. South African parastatals such as Eskom and water utilities have moved into the continent as private companies for profit.
The SAWC insists that our rights to water are respected, that the constitutional provisions on water are upheld and that rights to natural and traditional water sources are protected.
As such, the SAWC rejects the privatisation of water in all its forms, whether it be the sale of assets, lease agreements, delegated management, private public partnerships, build operate train transfer schemes (Bott) or any other form.
The SAWC says:
Private sector out of water!
Water out of Gats!
No to the new issues!
No to the WTO, Gear and Nepad!
The SAWC argues for the decommodification of water. The public sector should carry out its responsibility as implementer at the level of water resources, water distribution and water service delivery. Government should work with communities to introduce public works and other programmes to repair and extend community infrastructure.
The water industry should not be for profit. Any surplus raised by the industry should be used for the further extension of water services. Corporations that damage the environment and pollute water resources must be made to repair the damage done and compensate people negatively affected.
The SAWC insists that government should respect the rights of all in South Africa to water and to the information needed to protect those rights.
The SAWC supports the Phantsi WTO! platform and is part of the campaign to mobilize people against the WTO and government's active promotion of the institution.
Phantsi WTO!
Water for all!
Liane Greeff
Programme Manager: Water Justice
Environmental Monitoring Group, South Africa
Telephone: 27 21 448 2881 / 7888319
Cel: 083 415 2365
Email: rivers
kingsley.co.za