In the 1990s Berlin was governed by a
coalition of Social Democrats (SPD) and
Christian Democrats (CDU). Water
privatization was decided by a small group
of key actors. The opposition parties, the
party base of the SPD and the citizens were
completely sidelined. Only the media
provided information about the decisions
that concerned all the inhabitants of the city.
• As is usual in privatization projects, decision-
making was neither public nor transparent,
and all public influence was considered as
potentially detrimental. The privatization
contract between the city and the water
companies was not disclosed and only a very
restricted number of politicians had access to
it.
WATER PRIVATIZATION
Members of Germany's conservative parties arrive for preliminary coalition with the Social Democratic Party at the Parliamentary Society in Berlin, Oct. 14, 2013.
Negotiations to end the largest municipal P3 in
Germany were finally concluded on September 10
with a deal by the Berlin government to spend
€650 million (C$893 million) to buy back shares of
the Berlin Water Company that have been in the
hands of water giant Veolia since a P3 deal was
signed in 1999. A press release (translated from
German) from the Berlin Water Table celebrated
the end of the P3 by saying, "With the repurchase
of shares of the Veolia Water Company, the Senate
ended a nearly 14 year old partial
privatization. This has left the people of Berlin, the
highest water rates in the major German cities as
well as a mountain of problems.
The dominant argument is that the state takes too long to provide the necessary services which are deemed ineffective.
Success and campaign 2
In response to the negative consequences of water
privatization popular resistance increased. A citizens’
initiative was born: “No more secret contracts – we want our
water back”. It proposes a law on the full disclosure of the
agreement on the partial privatization of the Berlin Water
Works (Berliner Wasserwerke) in 1999. On 6 October 2009the Court ruled that the citizens’ initiative was valid. Now it
was the parliament’s turn to take a position, and it rejected
the initiative. Those in power had tried everything to stop the
initiative: first rejection, then preemption, and finally silence
instead of a campaign, hoping that not enough people would
go to vote. A great victory for the organisers of the citizens’
initiative which had very limited financial resources and felt
that the referendum campaign had not been fair.
Distribution of flyers informing water privatization
Protest place
Banners Campaign 1
The consequences of water privatization were quite contrary to
what was promised: the price of water rose, additional investments
into water quality were suspended for commercial reasons, jobs
were lost and tax money was used to secure the guaranteed profits
of the private investors et cetera. Water privatization did not resolve
Berlin’s financial deficits.
With per capita availability of water depleting at a faster pace, the government today approved a proposal to declare 2013 as Water Conservation Year under which awareness programmes will be launched for conservation of the scarce natural resource. Auto MNCs in India have been focussing on water conservation as part of its outreach and community initiatives in India. Hyundai Motor India has been working on water harvesting and recycling and now Ford India has its initiative in Sanand, Gujarat.Participants at a workshop on water conservation on Wednesday called for utilizing technology to the hilt to address water shortages. The Government of A.P has already initiated a massive program of creation of irrigation infrastructure.
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