Memo To Auckland Council - Don’t You Dare Privatise Our Water

In her 2004 book, ‘Troubled Water’, the late Anita Roddick quoted a group called ‘Public Citizen’, a not-for-profit consumer organisation set up in America by Ralph Nader in 1971.

Public Citizen declared: Water is a common good, the trust of all humanity. The right to water is an inalienable individual and collective right. Each member of the human community has the right to water in quantity and quality sufficient to life and basic economic activities. Water belongs to the earth and all species and therefore must not be treated as a private commodity to be bought, sold, and traded for profit.

The United Nations General Assembly, in 2010, passed a resolution which declared that “the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation” was “a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment of life and all human rights.”

Karen Piper, in her 2014 book ‘The Price of Thirst: Global Water Inequality and the Coming Chaos’, was scathing in her attack on the world’s major private water companies.

Her assessment, in nearly 300 pages, was that privatisation around the world has increased costs to consumers, cut off supply to those who can’t pay, and diminished the quality of the water in many cases.

And right now, Auckland Council has commissioned a review of Council-owned assets, so possible privatisation of Watercare Auckland can be assessed. They are also examining assets like the Ports of Auckland and the Airport shares. The CEO of Auckland Council, Stephen Town, stated that he thought there would be little appetite for selling our water, but the review is taking place nevertheless. Is this just a softening up process?

What are the arguments against privatising water, you may well ask?

Many municipalities have realised that they are worse off under privatised water. For example, in Paris, Deputy Mayor Anne le Strat explained, “We were run by a private company, Veolia, for 25 years but recently we voted to become public.

“Since then, we have lowered rates but still increased profits. And these profits have gone back into the utility. We also have more transparency so people are happier.” According to le Strat, Veolia “imposed successive increases whose accumulated effect over the period worked out at a rise of 260%.” (‘The Price Of Thirst’, p209 )

It is worth noting here that Veolia has the contract to supply Papakura’s water, as well as several other New Zealand towns. They have offices in Parnell, so watch for their interest in taking over Auckland’s water supply. Veolia is one of the largest private water companies in the world, with turnover 10 years ago, according to Anita Roddick, of some $5 billion with a staff of 295,000 worldwide.

Roddick further alleges that the major water companies have created sophisticated lobby groups to encourage the passage of legislation friendly to their interests. She says, “the performance of the international water companies has been well documented: huge profits, higher prices for water, cut-offs to customers who cannot pay, little transparency in their dealings, reduced water quality, bribery and corruption.”

Finally, Roddick’s book ‘Troubled Water’, says, “A water secure future depends on creating
a global water trust that must never be used to line the pockets of a greedy few.”

There is no more basic need than survival, and no substance on earth more crucial to survival than water. This makes it attractive to privatise and commodify, and one worth fighting and dying for. It is a capitalist’s dream, and is an important reason why it has been predicted that future world wars will not be about gold, silver or uranium, but will be about water.

As Robert Kennedy Jr has said, “Water no longer flows downhill. It flows toward money”.

Water is a closed system: all of the water that exists on earth today existed when the planet was first formed. The water in a dinosaur’s drinking hole 250 million years ago may be the same water in your afternoon tea tomorrow. The river polluted by toxic runoff may be in a baby’s formula in 10 years time.

As Vandana Shiva, ecology adviser to the Third World Network has said, “Governments and corporations cannot alienate people of their water rights. Water rights come from nature and creation. They flow from the laws of nature, not from the rules of the market.”

Karen Piper’s book ‘The price of Thirst’ paints a harrowing picture of a world out of balance, with the distance between the haves and have-nots of water inexorably widening, and she metes out a lot of the blame home to multi national water companies making more money out of water than was ever made out of iron, steel or oil.

Those of us who oppose privatisation of our water need to be extremely vigilant to ensure our city does not make a sudden grab for some cash to help its cash-strapped budget by flogging off our water. (JOHN ELLIOTT)

E: johnelliott@ihug.co.nz